Michael Daugherty
Background information
Born	(1954-04-28)April 28, 1954 (age 71) Cedar Rapids,Iowa, U.S.
Genres	Orchestral Contemporary Classical
Occupation	Composer
Website	www.michaeldaugherty.net
List of compositions by Michael Daugherty

Michael Kevin Daugherty (born April 28, 1954) is a multiple Grammy Award-winning American composer, pianist, and teacher.^[1] He is influenced bypopular culture,Romanticism, andPostmodernism. Daugherty's notable works include his Superman comic book-inspiredMetropolis Symphony for Orchestra (1988–93),Dead Elvis for Solo Bassoon and Chamber Ensemble (1993),Jackie O (1997),Niagara Falls for Symphonic Band (1997),UFO for Solo Percussion and Orchestra (1999) and for Symphonic Band (2000),Bells for Stokowski fromPhiladelphia Stories for Orchestra (2001) and for Symphonic Band (2002),Fire and Blood for Solo Violin and Orchestra (2003) inspired byDiego Rivera andFrida Kahlo,Time Machine for Three Conductors and Orchestra (2003),Ghost Ranch for Orchestra (2005),Deus ex Machina for Piano and Orchestra (2007),^[2]Labyrinth of Love for Soprano and Chamber Winds (2012),American Gothic for Orchestra (2013), andTales of Hemingway for Cello and Orchestra (2015). Daugherty has been described byThe Times (London) as "a master icon maker" with a "maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear."^[3]

Currently, Daugherty is Professor of Composition at theUniversity of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance in Ann Arbor, Michigan.^[4] Michael Daugherty's music is published by Peermusic Classical,Boosey & Hawkes, and since 2010, Michael Daugherty Music/Bill Holab Music.^[5]

Michael Daugherty was born into a musical family on April 28, 1954, inCedar Rapids, Iowa. His father Willis Daugherty (1929–2011) was ajazz andcountry and western drummer, his mother Evelyn Daugherty (1927–1974) was an amateur singer,^[6] and his grandmother Josephine Daugherty (1907–1991) was a pianist forsilent film.^[7] Daugherty's four younger brothers are all professional musicians: Pat Daugherty (b. 1956) Leader of the group New York Electric Piano, Tim Daugherty (b. 1958) jazz/pop composer of over 15 CD's featuring original compositions, Matt Daugherty (b. 1960) teacher of Music education in Florida, and Tommy D. Daugherty (b. 1961) engineer and producer for many of theDeath Row artists most specifically Tupac Shukar.^[6]

The centerpieces of the modest Daugherty home, located at 1547 5th Avenue S.E. in Cedar Rapids, were aplayer piano, television, and record player. At the age of 8, Daugherty taught himself how to play piano by pumping the pedals of the player piano and watching how piano keys moved toTin Pan Alley tunes such as "Alexander's Ragtime Band".^[6] Music was a significant activity in the Daugherty family, especially during the holidays when relatives would participate in jam sessions of popular songs like "Misty" and "Sentimental Journey". Additionally, the Daugherty family would frequently gather around the television in the evening to watch popular variety hours such asThe Ed Sullivan Show,The Jackie Gleason Show, andThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.^[8] The record collection at the Daugherty home consisted mainly of 'easy listening music' of the fifties and music fromBroadway theatre.

During his developmental years, Daugherty's mother encouraged him to paint, draw cartoons, tap dance, and play basketball and his father and uncle Danny Nicol taught him how to play rock and jazz drums. From 1963 to 1967 Daugherty played bass drum in the Emerald Knights and tom-toms in the GrenadierDrum and Bugle Corps where he competed against other Drum and Bugle Corps throughout small Midwestern towns. During these years, Daugherty was employed as an early morning paper boy forThe Des Moines Register and delivered papers across his neighborhood and to Mercy Hospital in Cedar Rapids.^[6]

Traveling was an important pastime for the Daugherty family. They often took long summer road trips down two-lane highways to tourist locations, includingMount Rushmore,Niagara Falls andMiami Beach.^[7] In 1964, the entire Daugherty family took a two-week vacation toLondon whereThe Beatles andJimi Hendrix were at the height of their fame andCarnaby Street was the cutting edge of pop culture and fashion – this was in the heart of theSwinging Sixties.^[9]

The sixties in America were a time of great political unrest and social change. This made a great impact on the teenage Daugherty.^[10]Civil Rights demonstrations for racial equality and integration and demonstrations against theVietnam War were becoming common day occurrences in Iowa by 1970, especially at the nearbyUniversity of Iowa, in Iowa City.^[11]

From 1968 to 1972, Daugherty was the leader, arranger, and organist for his high school rock, soul, andfunk band, The Soul Company.^[6] This band performed a variety ofMotown charts and music byJames Brown,Blood Sweat & Tears, andSly and the Family Stone. Because accessing sheet music was almost impossible, Daugherty learned to hand-transcribe the music by listening to vinyl recordings. With the help of his father, who drove the band across the state, The Soul Company became a locally popular group that performed at high school proms, dances, and other events.^[9]

During the same years, Daugherty was a piano accompanist for the Washington High School Concert Choir, a solo jazz piano performer in nightclubs and lounges, and he appeared on local television as the pianist for the country and westernDale Thomas Show.^[6] Daugherty interviewed jazz artists who performed in Iowa, includingBuddy Rich,Stan Kenton,George Shearing, andRahsaan Roland Kirk, and he wrote articles on their music for the high school newspaper. During the summers of 1972–77, Daugherty playedHammond organ atcounty fairs across the Midwest for various popular music stars such asBobby Vinton,Boots Randolph,Pee Wee King, and members ofThe Lawrence Welk Show.^[6]

Daugherty studied music composition and jazz at theUniversity of North Texas College of Music from 1972 to 1976. His teachers of composition includedMartin Mailman and James Sellars. Daugherty also played jazz piano in theTwo O'Clock Lab Band.^[6] It was after hearing theDallas Symphony Orchestra perform thePiano Concerto bySamuel Barber that Daugherty decided to devote his full energies into composing music for the concert stage.^[7] In 1974, conductorAnshel Brusilow programmed a new work with theUniversity of North Texas Symphony Orchestra, Daugherty was 20 years of age. After his premiere ofMovements for Orchestra, the composition faculty awarded Daugherty a fellowship, which allowed him to continue his musical studies at the university. Daugherty received a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition from North Texas State University in 1976.^[6]

That same year, Daugherty moved toNew York City to experience the exploding new music scene. While there, he studiedserialism withCharles Wuorinen at theManhattan School of Music for two years, and received a Master of Music in Composition degree in 1978.^[6] To earn money for his studies, Daugherty was employed as an usher atCarnegie Hall and a rehearsal pianist for dance classes directed by the New York City Ballet dancerJacques d'Amboise.^[12]

Daugherty frequently attended "uptown" and "downtown" new music concerts in New York City; this is where he became acquainted with composers such asMilton Babbitt,Morton Feldman, andPierre Boulez.^[6] In 1978, Boulez, then the Music Director of theNew York Philharmonic, invited Daugherty to apply to his recently opened computer music institute in Paris:IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique). AFulbright Fellowship enabled Daugherty to move to Paris to study computer music at IRCAM from 1979 to 1980. During his time at IRCAM, he met many composers such asLuciano Berio,Gérard Grisey,Tod Machover, andFrank Zappa.^[6] In Paris, Daugherty had the opportunity to hearcontemporary music by the leading European composers of the time performed by theEnsemble l'Itinéraire and Boulez'sEnsemble InterContemporain. He also attended analysis classes given byBetsy Jolas at theConservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris.^[6]

In the fall of 1980, Daugherty returned to America to pursue doctoral studies in composition at theYale School of Music. During that time,Jacob Druckman (who was one of America's most influential composers) was chair of the composition department at Yale and composer in residence with the New York Philharmonic. Daugherty studied with Druckman and otherPulitzer Prize winning composers at Yale, includingBernard Rands andRoger Reynolds. He also studied improvisational notation systems andopen form with experimental music composerEarle Brown.^[6] Daugherty's composition class at Yale included student composers who would later become unique and important voices in contemporary music:Bang on a Can composersMichael Gordon,David Lang, andJulia Wolfe; along withRobert Beaser,Aaron Jay Kernis,Scott Lindroth, andBetty Olivero.^[13]

At Yale, Daugherty wrote his dissertation on the relationship between the music ofCharles Ives andGustav Mahler and the writings ofGoethe andRalph Waldo Emerson.^[6] He worked closely on this dissertation withJohn Kirkpatrick, who was the curator of the Ives Collection at Yale and gave the 1938 premiere of Ives'Piano Sonata No. 2:Concord Sonata. Daugherty also continued his interest in jazz where he worked withWillie Ruff and directed the Yale Jazz Ensemble. It was Ruff who introduced Daugherty to jazz arrangerGil Evans, who, at that time, was looking for an assistant. For the next several years, Daugherty traveled by train from New Haven to Evans' private studio in Manhattan. Daugherty helped Evans organize his music manuscripts and complete projects. The most notable project was the reconstruction of the lost arrangements ofPorgy and Bess, which was originally used for the 1958 recording withMiles Davis.^[6]

During the summer of 1981, Daugherty studied composition with Pulitzer Prize–winning composerMario Davidovsky as a composition fellow atTanglewood, which, at that time, was renowned as a bastion of abstract andatonal music. It was at Tanglewood that Daugherty met the composer/conductorLeonard Bernstein. After hearing Daugherty's music at Tanglewood, Bernstein encouraged Daugherty to seriously consider integrating American popular music with concert music.^[10] In the early 1980s, Bernstein's populist attitude was rarely shared by critics who favored "serious" contemporary concert music.^[14]

One year later, in the summer of 1982, Daugherty traveled to Germany to attend theDarmstädter Ferienkurse (Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik – Darmstadt International Summer Courses in New Music).^[6]Darmstadt was one of the leading centers for new music in Europe, where the musical aesthetics ofTheodor W. Adorno were still of great influence. Daugherty attended lectures given by composers, includingBrian Ferneyhough andKarlheinz Stockhausen, and performances by theArditti String Quartet. At Darmstadt, Daugherty became friends with Karlheinz's son, the trumpet playerMarkus Stockhausen. Together they formed an experimental improvisation ensemble (Markus Stockhausen on trumpet and electronics and Daugherty on synthesizers) that, over several years, performed in concert halls and clubs across Europe.^[6]

In the fall of 1982, Daugherty was invited by composerGyörgy Ligeti to study composition with him at theHochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. In addition to attending Ligeti's composition seminar (which took place at his apartment in Hamburg), Daugherty traveled with Ligeti to attend concerts and festivals of his music throughout Europe.^[6] At the time, Ligeti was interested in the music ofConlon Nancarrow, who lived in isolation in Mexico City and composed complexpolyrhythmic music for player pianos. The player piano (by now an antique) was a familiar and nostalgic musical instrument to Daugherty. Daugherty met Nancarrow in Graz, Austria, when Ligeti introduced Nancarrow and his music to the European intelligentsia at the 1982 ISCM (International Society for Contemporary Music) World Music Days.^[15] During the following two years (1983–84), Daugherty continued to study with Ligeti while employed as a solo jazz pianist in night clubs in Cambridge, England and Amsterdam. To create "original" music, Ligeti encouraged and inspired Daugherty to find new ways to integratecomputer music, jazz, rock, and American popular music with concert music.^[6] In the fall of 1984, Daugherty returned to America and devoted his career to doing just that.

Daugherty is an educator of young composers and advocate for contemporary music. As an Assistant Professor of Composition at theOberlin Conservatory of Music (1986–91),^[4] Daugherty organized guest residencies of composers with performances of their music.^[16] Daugherty also organized the 1988 Electronic Festival Plus Festival, which took place at Oberlin and featured music from over 50 composers. While teaching composition at Oberlin, Daugherty collaborated with renowned jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd, who taught there from 1987 to 1989. After Daugherty introduced Byrd to theW.C. Handy composition "Harlem Blues", Byrd asked Daugherty to arrange it for a commercial recording made at the Van Gelder Studio located in Englewood Cliffs, NJ for the Landmark label, with Daugherty playing synthesizers.^[17]

In 1991, Daugherty was invited to join the composition faculty at the University of Michigan School of Music (Ann Arbor).^[10] He replacedLeslie Bassett, who retired.^[18] Daugherty was co-chair of the composition department with composerWilliam Bolcom from 1998 to 2001, and chair of the department from 2002 to 2006.^[19] At the University of Michigan, Daugherty mentored many young composers,^[10] includingClarice Assad,Derek Bermel,Gabriela Lena Frank,Kristin Kuster,David T. Little,Shuying Li,Joel Puckett,Andrea Reinkemeyer,Arlene Sierra,D. J. Sparr andRoger Zare.^[20] Daugherty has organized residencies of guest composers with performances of their music, includingLouis Andriessen,Michael Colgrass,Michael Torke,Joan Tower,Betsy Jolas andGyörgy Ligeti.^[4] He has also composed new works, includingNiagara Falls (1997) andBells for Stokowski (2002), for the University of Michigan Symphony Band and its two most recent conductors,H. Robert Reynolds and Michael Haithcock.^[21]

Daugherty organized a three-day festival and conference entitled ONCE. MORE., which took place November 2–4, 2010 at Rackham Auditorium, located on the University of Michigan campus.^[22] For the first time in 50 years, the original ONCE composersRobert Ashley,Gordon Mumma,Roger Reynolds and Donald Scarvada returned to Ann Arbor to participate in concerts featuring their recent compositions and their works from the original ONCE festival held in Ann Arbor in the 1960s.^[4]

Daugherty has served as a final judge for the Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) Student Composers Awards,^[23] the Gaudeamus International Composers Competition,^[24] and theDetroit Symphony Orchestra's Elaine Lebenborn Award for Female Composers.^[25] He has also been a panelist for theNational Endowment for the Arts^[4] andMeet the Composer.^[12] Daugherty has served as a composer mentor for reading sessions of young composers' music by organizations such as theAmerican Composers Orchestra, Minnesota Composers Orchestra,Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Omaha Symphony, and the Young Composers Institute in Apeldoorn (Netherlands).^[4]

Daugherty has been Composer-in-Residence with theLouisville Symphony Orchestra (2000),Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1999–2003),Colorado Symphony Orchestra (2001–02),Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music (2001, 2006, 2011), Westshore Symphony Orchestra (2005–06),Eugene Symphony (2006), the Henry Mancini Summer Institute (2006), theMusic from Angel Fire Chamber Music Festival (2006), thePacific Symphony (2010),Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra (2012),New Century Chamber Orchestra (2014), and theAlbany Symphony Orchestra (2015).^[4]

Institutions of higher learning who have invited Daugherty include theUniversity of Texas at Austin,University of Colorado at Boulder,Rice University,Northwestern University,Syracuse University,Indiana University,University of Iowa, University of North Texas,Vanderbilt University,Louisiana State University,Appalachian State University,University of Southern California,Eastman School of Music,The Hartt School,Juilliard School of Music, andShenandoah University Conservatory of Music.^[4]

In 2001, Daugherty was invited to present his music with performances by theUnited States Air Force Band at theMidwest Clinic "The Midnight Special" inChicago. Daugherty has participated in theRavinia Festival Community Outreach program which is designed to promote and encourage new music by student ensembles in the Chicago Public Schools.^[4]

Daugherty received theKennedy Center Freidheim Award (1989) for his compositionsSnap! andBlue Like an Orange, the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1991), fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1992), theGuggenheim Foundation (1996), and theStoeger Prize from theChamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (2000). In 2005, Daugherty received theLancaster 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 theDetroit Music Awards and received theAmerican Bandmasters AssociationOstwald Award for his compositionRaise the Roof for Timpani and Symphonic Band. Daugherty received several Grammy awards in the category ofBest Contemporary Classical Composition for theNashville Symphony recordings ofDeus ex Machina^[26] andTales of Hemingway for cello and orchestra.^[27]

• Official website

• 1954 births
• Living people
• 20th-century American classical composers
• 20th-century American male musicians
• 21st-century American classical composers
• 21st-century American male musicians
• American contemporary classical composers
• American opera composers
• Classical musicians from Michigan
• Concert band composers
• American contemporary classical music performers
• American male opera composers
• Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• Musicians from Cedar Rapids, Iowa
• Musicians from Iowa
• Pupils of Mario Davidovsky
• Pupils of Jacob Druckman
• Pupils of Charles Wuorinen
• University of Michigan faculty
• University of North Texas College of Music alumni
• Yale School of Music alumni
• Postmodern composers

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from January 2021
• Articles with hCards