January 13, 2010

Meet Michael Daugherty

Michael Daugherty is one of the most frequently commissioned, programmed, and recorded composers on the American concert music scene today. His music is rich with cultural allusions and bears the stamp of classic modernism, with colliding tonalities and blocks of sound; at the same time, his melodies can be eloquent and stirring. Daugherty has been hailed by The Times (London) as "a master icon maker" with a "maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear." Daugherty first came to international attention when the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Zinman, performed his Metropolis Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 1994. Since that time, Daugherty's music has entered the orchestral, band and chamber music repertoire and made him, according to the League of American Orchestras, one of the ten most performed living American composers.

Born in 1954 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Daugherty is the son of a dance-band drummer and the oldest of five brothers, all professional musicians. He studied music composition at the University of North Texas (1972-76) and the Manhattan School of Music (1976-78). In 1978, Pierre Boulez, then the Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, invited Daugherty to apply to his recently opened computer music institute in Paris: IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique). A Fulbright Fellowship enabled Daugherty to move to Paris to study computer music at IRCAM from 1979-80. Daugherty received his doctorate from Yale University in 1986 where his teachers included Jacob Druckman, Earle Brown, Roger Reynolds, and Bernard Rands. During this time, he also collaborated with jazz arranger Gil Evans in New York, and pursued further studies with composer György Ligeti in Hamburg, Germany (1982-84). After teaching music composition from 1986-1990 at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Daugherty joined the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance in Ann Arbor, Michigan where, since 1991, he has been a mentor to many of today's most talented young composers.
Daugherty is a frequent guest of professional orchestras, festivals, universities and conservatories around the world where he participates in pre-concert talks, teaches composition master classes and works with student composers and ensembles. Daugherty has been the Composer-in-Residence with the Louisville Symphony Orchestra (2000), Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1999-2003), Colorado Symphony Orchestra (2001-2002), Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music (2001-04, 2006-08), West Shore Symphony Orchestra (2005-06), Eugene Symphony (2006), Henry Mancini Summer Institute (2006), Music from Angel Fire Chamber Music Festival (2006) and Pacific Symphony (2010).

American orchestras who have performed Daugherty's music include the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Delaware Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Eugene Symphony, Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, Houston Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, New York Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Portland Symphony Orchestra, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, Richmond Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Spokane Symphony, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Syracuse Symphony and West Shore Symphony Orchestra. Orchestral performances abroad of Daugherty's music have been given by, among others, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Bochumer Symphoniker, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Radio Orchestra, Philharmonia (London), Philharmonisches Hamburg, RAI Orchestra of Turin and the Tonalle Orchester Zürich.

Daugherty's orchestral music has been conducted by, among others, Marin Alsop, David Amado, Tito Ceccherini, Michael Christie, Carl St. Clair, Dennis Russell Davies, James DePriest, Enrique Diemecke, William Eddins, JoAnn Falletta, Giancarlo Guerrero, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Daniel Hege, Mariss Jansons, Neeme Järvi, Kristjan Järvi, Jeffrey Kahane, Kenneth Keisler, David Lockington, David Loebel, Grant Llewellyn, Ingo Metzmacher, David Allan Miller, John Nelson, Larry Rachleff, David Robertson, Timothy Russell, Kenneth Schermerhorn, Gerald Schwartz, Leif Segerstam, Leonard Slatkin, Steven Sloane, Lawrence Leighton Smith, Scott Speck, Markus Stenz, Patrick Summers, Michael Tilson Thomas, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Hugh Wolff and David Zinman.

Ensembles who have performed Daugherty's chamber music include the Bassoon Brothers, Boston Music Viva, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Ensemble Bash (UK), Sentieri Selvaggi (Italy), Ensemble Intercontemporain (France), Ethos Percussion Ensemble, Kronos Quartet, London Sinfonietta (UK), Netherlands Winds Ensemble, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble and Present Music.

Renowned soloists who have performed his music include baritone Thomas Hampson, percussionists Colin Currie and Evelyn Glennie, flutists Emmanuel Pahud and Amy Porter, classical guitarist Manuel Barrueco, violinists Alexandre da Costa, Francesco D'Orazio, Gregory Fulkerson and Ida Kavafian, clarinetists John Bruce Yeh and Michael Wayne, bassoonist Charles Ullery, and pianists Emanuele Arciuli, Paul Crossley, Christopher O'Riley, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Terrence Wilson.

Daugherty has received numerous awards, distinctions, and fellowships for his music including a Fulbright Fellowship (1977), Kennedy Center Friedheim Award (1989), Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1991), fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1992) and the Guggenheim Foundation (1996), the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (2000) and the Michigan Governor's Award (2004). In 2005, Daugherty received the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra Composer's Award, and in 2007, the Delaware Symphony Orchestra selected Daugherty as the winner of the A. I. duPont Award. Also in 2007, Daugherty was named "Outstanding Classical Composer" at the Detroit Music Awards and received the American Bandmasters Association Ostwald Award for his composition Raise the Roof for Timpani and Symphonic Band. His music is published by Peermusic Classical and since 2003 by Boosey and Hawkes. Daugherty's music can be heard on the Albany, Argo, Delos, Equilibrium, Naxos, Nonesuch and Sony labels.