Michael Kevin Daugherty (born April 28, 1954) is an American composer, pianist, and teacher. Influenced by popular culture, Romanticism

Romanticism

Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...

, and Postmodernism

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...

, Daugherty is one of the most colorful and widely performed American concert music composers of his generation. Daugherty's notable works include his Superman comic book-inspired Metropolis Symphony

Metropolis Symphony

Metropolis Symphony for Orchestra by American composer Michael Daugherty, is a five-movement symphony inspired by Superman comics. The entire piece was created over the span of five years with separate commissions for each movement. Individual movements may be performed separately, however, it is...

for Orchestra (1988–93), Dead Elvis

Dead Elvis (composition)

Dead Elvis for Solo Bassoon and Chamber Ensemble by American composer Michael Daugherty, is a 10 minute, single movement work inspired by the King of Rock-n-Roll, Elvis Presley. Dead Elvis was commissioned by bassoonist Charles Ullery and The Grand Tetons Festival, and Richard Pittman/Boston...

for Solo Bassoon and Chamber Ensemble (1993), Jackie O

Jackie O (opera)

Jackie O is a chamber opera in two acts composed by Michael Daugherty to a libretto by Wayne Koestenbaum. The 90 minute work, commissioned by Houston Grand Opera in 1995 and premiered in 1997, is inspired by American musical and popular culture of the late 1960s and episodes in the life of...

(1997), Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls (composition)

Niagara Falls for Symphonic Band by American composer Michael Daugherty, is his first composition for the Concert band. It is a 10 minute, single-movement work, that explores the most visited waterfalls in the world. Niagara Falls was commissioned by the University of Michigan Bands in honor of...

for Symphonic Band (1997), UFO

UFO (composition)

UFO for Solo Percussion and Orchestra and for Solo Percussion and Symphonic Band by American composer Michael Daugherty, is a composition written for percussionist Evelyn Glennie. UFO for Solo Percussion and Orchestra was commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra through a grant from the...

for Solo Percussion and Orchestra (1999) and for Symphonic Band (2000), Bells for Stokowski

Bells for Stokowski

Bells for Stokowski for Orchestra and for Symphonic Band by American composer Michael Daugherty, is a 14 minute, single-movement tribute to one of the most prominent 20th century conductors, Leopold Stokowski. Bells for Stokowski for Orchestra stands alone as a concert piece, however, it is also...

from Philadelphia Stories for Orchestra (2001) and for Symphonic Band (2002), Fire and Blood

Fire and Blood (composition)

Fire and Blood for solo violin and Orchestra by composer Michael Daugherty is a 25 minute concerto inspired by Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry Murals and Frida Kahlo's paintings while in Detroit. It was commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra during Michael Daugherty's time as composer in...

for Solo Violin and Orchestra (2003) inspired by Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera

Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...

 and Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán, and perhaps best known for her self-portraits....

, Time Machine for Three Conductors and Orchestra (2003), Ghost Ranch for Orchestra (2005), and Deus ex Machina

Deus ex Machina (composition)

Deus ex Machina is a composition by Michael Daugherty. It is a 33 minute composition commissioned by the Charlotte, Nashville, New Jersey, Rochester and Syracuse Symphony Orchestras...

for Piano and Orchestra (2007). Daugherty has been described by The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

 (London) as "a master icon maker" with a "maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear."

Currently, Daugherty is Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance

University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance

The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance is an undergraduate and graduate institution for the performing arts in the United States. It is part of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. The School of Music, Theatre & Dance was founded in 1880 and is currently headed by...

 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Since 2003, his music has been published by Boosey & Hawkes

Boosey & Hawkes

Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and wind musical instruments....

 and prior to then by Peermusic Classical.

Early years

Michael Daugherty was born into a musical family on April 28, 1954 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and east of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city...

. His father Willis Daugherty (b.1929) was a jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 and country and western drummer, his mother Evelyn Daugherty (1927–1974) was an amateur singer, and his grandmother Josephine Daugherty (1907–1991) was a pianist for silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

. Daugherty’s four younger brothers are all professional musicians: Pat Daugherty (b. 1956), Tim Daugherty (b. 1958), Matt Daugherty (b. 1960), and Tom Daugherty (b. 1961).

The centerpieces of the modest Daugherty home, located at 1547 5th Avenue S.E. in Cedar Rapids, were a player piano

Player piano

A player piano is a self-playing piano, containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism that operates the piano action via pre-programmed music perforated paper, or in rare instances, metallic rolls. The rise of the player piano grew with the rise of the mass-produced piano for the home in...

, 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 to Tin Pan Alley

Tin Pan Alley

Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...

 tunes such as "Alexander's Ragtime Band

Alexander's Ragtime Band

"Alexander's Ragtime Band" is the name of a song by Irving Berlin. It was his first major hit, in 1911. There is some evidence, although inconclusive, that Berlin borrowed the melody from a draft of "A Real Slow Drag" submitted by Scott Joplin that had been submitted to a...

". 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 as The Ed Sullivan Show

The Ed Sullivan Show

The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....

, The Jackie Gleason Show

The Jackie Gleason Show

The Jackie Gleason Show is the name of a series of popular American network television shows that starred Jackie Gleason, which ran from 1952 to 1970.-Cavalcade of Stars:...

, and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. The record collection at the Daugherty home consisted mainly of 'easy listening music' of the fifties and music from Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

.

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 1963-67 Daugherty played bass drum in the Emerald Knights and tom-toms in Grenadier Drum and Bugle Corps

Drum and bugle corps (modern)

A drum and bugle corps, also known as a drum corps, is a musical marching unit consisting of brass instruments, percussion instruments, and color guard. Typically operating as independent non-profit organizations, drum corps perform in competitions, parades, festivals, and other civic functions...

 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 for The Des Moines Register and delivered papers across his neighborhood and to Mercy Hospital in Cedar Rapids.

Traveling was an important pastime for the Daugherty family. They often took long summer road trips down two-lane highways to tourist locations, including Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore near Keystone, South Dakota, in the United States...

, Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls

The Niagara Falls, located on the Niagara River draining Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, is the collective name for the Horseshoe Falls and the adjacent American Falls along with the comparatively small Bridal Veil Falls, which combined form the highest flow rate of any waterfalls in the world and has...

 and Miami Beach

Miami Beach, Florida

Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter which separates the Beach from Miami city proper...

. In 1964, the entire Daugherty family took a two-week vacation to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 where The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

 and Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

 were at the height of their fame and Carnaby Street

Carnaby Street

Carnaby Street is a pedestrianised shopping street in London, United Kingdom, located in the Soho district, near Oxford Street and Regent Street. It is home to numerous fashion and lifestyle retailers, including a large number of independent fashion boutiques...

 was the cutting edge of pop culture and fashion – this was in the heart of the Swinging Sixties.

The sixties in America were a time of great political unrest and social change. This made a great impact on the teenage Daugherty. Civil Rights

Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

 demonstrations for racial equality and integration and demonstrations against the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

 were becoming common day occurrences in Iowa, especially at the nearby University of Iowa

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

, in Iowa City.

From 1968-72, Daugherty was the leader, arranger, and organist for his high school rock, soul, and funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

 band, The Soul Company. This band performed a variety of Motown charts and music by James Brown

James Brown

James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...

, Blood Sweat & Tears, and Sly and the Family Stone. Because accessing sheet music was almost impossible, Daugherty learned to hand-transcribe

Transcription (music)

In music, transcription can mean notating a piece or a sound which was previously unnotated, as, for example, an improvised jazz solo. Further examples include ethnomusicological notation of oral traditions of folk music, such as Béla Bartók's and Ralph Vaughan Williams' collections of the national...

 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.

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 western Dale Thomas Show. Daugherty interviewed jazz artists who performed in Iowa, including Buddy Rich

Buddy Rich

Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuosic technique, power, groove, and speed.-Early life:...

, Stan Kenton

Stan Kenton

Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....

, George Shearing

George Shearing

Sir George Shearing, OBE was an Anglo-American jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for MGM Records and Capitol Records. The composer of over 300 titles, he had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s...

, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Rahsaan Roland Kirk was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute and many other instruments...

, and he wrote articles on their music for the high school newspaper. During the summers of 1972-77, Daugherty played Hammond organ

Hammond organ

The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...

 at county fairs across the Midwest for various popular music stars such as Bobby Vinton

Bobby Vinton

Bobby Vinton is an American pop music singer of Polish origin. In pop music circles, he became known as "The Polish Prince".-Early life:...

, Boots Randolph

Boots Randolph

Homer Louis "Boots" Randolph III was an American musician best known for his 1963 saxophone hit, "Yakety Sax"...

, Pee Wee King

Pee Wee King

Julius Frank Anthony Kuczynski , known professionally as Pee Wee King, was an American country music songwriter and recording artist best known for co-writing "The Tennessee Waltz"....

, and members of The Lawrence Welk Show

The Lawrence Welk Show

The Lawrence Welk Show is an American televised musical variety show hosted by big band leader Lawrence Welk. The series aired locally in Los Angeles for four years , then nationally for another 27 years via the ABC network and first-run syndication .In the years since first-run syndication...

.

Education in America and Europe

Daugherty studied music composition and jazz at the University of North Texas College of Music

University of North Texas College of Music

The University of North Texas College of Music, based in Denton, is a comprehensive music school with the largest enrollment of any music institution accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music, and the oldest in the world offering a degree in jazz studies...

 from 1972-76. His teachers of composition included Martin Mailman

Martin Mailman

Martin Mailman was an American composer noted for his music for orchestra, chorus, multimedia, and winds.-Biography:Dr. Martin Mailman was born in New York City on June 30, 1932...

 and James Sellars

James Sellars

James Sellars was a Scottish architect who was heavily inflenced by the work of Alexander Greek Thomson.He was one of the designers commissioned by the Saracen Foundry to work on a set of standard designs for a series of decorative iron works, for example railings, drinking fountains, bandstands,...

. Daugherty also played jazz piano in the Two O'Clock Lab Band

Two O'Clock Lab Band

The Two O'Clock Lab Band is the second highest level of nine big bands of the Jazz Studies Division at the University of North Texas College of Music, a comprehensive music school with the largest enrollment of any music institution accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music, and...

. It was after hearing the Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra. It performs its concerts in the Meyerson Symphony Center in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, United States....

 perform the Piano Concerto by Samuel Barber

Samuel Barber

Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...

 that Daugherty decided to devote his full energies into composing music for the concert stage. In 1974, conductor Anshel Brusilow

Anshel Brusilow

Anshel Brusilow is an American conductor and violinist.Anshel Brusilow began his violin study at the age of five and entered the Curtis Institute of Music when he was eleven. He attended the Philadelphia Musical Academy and at sixteen was the youngest conducting student ever accepted by Pierre...

 programmed a new work with the University of North Texas Symphony Orchestra

University of North Texas Symphony Orchestra

The University of North Texas Symphony Orchestra was established in 1920s at the University of North Texas College of Music — then known as North Texas State Teachers College School of Music...

, Daugherty was 20 years of age. After his premiere of Movements 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.

That same year, Daugherty moved to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 to experience the exploding new music scene. While there, he studied serialism

Serialism

In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...

 with Charles Wuorinen

Charles Wuorinen

Charles Peter Wuorinen is a prolific Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. His catalog of more than 250 compositions includes works for orchestra, opera, chamber music, as well as solo instrumental and vocal works...

 at the Manhattan School of Music

Manhattan School of Music

The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...

 for two years, and received a Master of Music in Composition degree in 1977. To earn money for his studies, Daugherty was employed as an usher at Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

 and a rehearsal pianist for dance classes directed by the New York City Ballet dancer Jacques d'Amboise.

Daugherty frequently attended "uptown" and "downtown" new music concerts in New York City; this is where he became acquainted with composers such as Milton Babbitt

Milton Babbitt

Milton Byron Babbitt was an American composer, music theorist, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his serial and electronic music.-Biography:...

, Morton Feldman

Morton Feldman

Morton Feldman was an American composer, born in New York City.A major figure in 20th century music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School of composers also including John Cage, Christian Wolff, and Earle Brown...

, and Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...

. In 1978, Boulez, then the Music Director of the New York Philharmonic

New York Philharmonic

The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...

, invited Daugherty to apply to his recently opened computer music institute in Paris: IRCAM

IRCAM

IRCAM is a European institute for science about music and sound and avant garde electro-acoustical art music. It is situated next to, and is organizationally linked with, the Centre Pompidou in Paris...

 (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. During his time at IRCAM, he met many composers such as Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...

, Gérard Grisey

Gérard Grisey

Gérard Grisey was a French composer of contemporary music.-Biography:Gérard Grisey was born in Belfort, France on 17 June 1946. He studied at the Trossingen Conservatory in Germany from 1963 to 1965 before entering the Conservatoire de Paris...

, Todd Machover, and Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa

Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...

. In Paris, Daughery had the opportunity to hear contemporary music by the leading European composers of the time performed by the Ensemble l'Itinéraire

Ensemble l'Itinéraire

The Ensemble l'Itinéraire is one of the main European ensemble of contemporary music, known in particular in spectral music. Spectral music alters "timbres by assembling orchestral masses." It was founded in January 1973 by Michaël Lévinas, Tristan Murail, Hugues Dufourt, Gérard Grisey and Roger...

 and Boulez’s Ensemble InterContemporain

Ensemble InterContemporain

The Ensemble InterContemporain is a French chamber orchestra, based in Paris at the Cité de la musique and IRCAM, which specialises in contemporary classical music....

. He also attended analysis classes given by Betsy Jolas

Betsy Jolas

Betsy Jolas is a French composer.Betsy Jolas was born in Paris. Resident in the United States from 1940 until 1946, she studied composition with Paul Boepple and piano with Helen Schnabel. On her return to France she continued her studies with Simone Plé-Caussade, Darius Milhaud and Olivier...

 at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris.

In the fall of 1980, Daugherty returned to America to pursue doctoral studies in composition at the Yale School of Music

Yale School of Music

The Yale School of Music is one of the twelve professional schools at Yale University and one of the premier music conservatories in the world....

. During that time, Jacob Druckman

Jacob Druckman

Jacob Druckman was an American composer born in Philadelphia. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Druckman studied with Vincent Persichetti, Peter Mennin, and Bernard Wagenaar. In 1949 and 1950 he studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood and later continued his studies at the École Normale de...

 (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 other Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

 winning composers at Yale, including Bernard Rands

Bernard Rands

Bernard Rands is a composer of contemporary classical music.Rands studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna in Darmstadt, Germany, and with Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio in Milan, Italy.He held residencies...

 and Roger Reynolds

Roger Reynolds

Roger Reynolds is an American composer born July 18, 1934 in Detroit, Michigan. He is a professor at the University of California at San Diego. He received an undergraduate degree in engineering physics from the University of Michigan where he later studied composition with Ross Lee Finney...

. He also studied improvisational notation systems and open form with experimental music composer Earle Brown

Earle Brown

Earle Brown was an American composer who established his own formal and notational systems...

. Daugherty’s composition class at Yale included student composers who would later become unique and important voices in contemporary music: Bang on a Can

Bang on a Can

Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted classical music organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon...

 composers Michael Gordon

Michael Gordon (composer)

Michael Gordon is an American composer and co-founder of the Bang on a Can festival and ensemble. His music is associated with the genres of totalism and post-minimalism.-Early life:...

, David Lang

David Lang (composer)

David Lang is an American composer living in New York City. He was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Music for The Little Match Girl Passion.-Biography:...

, and Julia Wolfe

Julia Wolfe

Julia Wolfe is an American composer. She was born in Philadelphia, holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Princeton and Yale, and currently works in New York. Wolfe's music is rhythmically vigorous and often clangorously dissonant...

; along with Robert Beaser, Aaron Jay Kernis

Aaron Jay Kernis

Aaron Jay Kernis is an American composer and professor at the Yale School of Music.-Biography:Aaron Jay Kernis is Jewish, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and studied at the Manhattan School of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory, and Yale University .,Notable works include the...

, Scott Lindroth

Scott Lindroth

Scott Lindroth is an American composer and teacher currently based near Durham, North Carolina.Lindroth joined the faculty of Duke University in 1990, where he is currently the Vice-Provost for the Arts and the Kevin D. Gorter Associate Professor of Music; his colleagues at Duke include composers...

, and Betty Olivero.

At Yale, Daugherty wrote his dissertation on the relationship between the music of Charles Ives

Charles Ives

Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...

 and Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...

 and the writings of Goethe and Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...

. He worked closely on this dissertation with John 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 with Willie Ruff

Willie Ruff

Willie Ruff is the hornist and bassist of the Mitchell-Ruff Duo and one of the founders of the W. C. Handy Music Festival. He was born in Florence, Alabama. The duo regularly performs and lectures all over the United States, Asia, Africa and Europe...

 and directed the Yale Jazz Ensemble. It was Ruff who introduced Daugherty to jazz arranger Gil Evans

Gil Evans

Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...

, 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 on the lower Westside of Manhattan. Daugherty helped Evans organize his music manuscripts and complete projects. The most notable project was the reconstruction of the lost arrangements of Porgy and Bess

Porgy and Bess

Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...

, which was originally used for the 1958 recording with Miles Davis

Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...

.

During the summer of 1981, Daugherty studied composition with Pulitzer Prize winning composer Mario Davidovsky

Mario Davidovsky

Mario Davidovsky is an Argentine-American composer. Born in Argentina, he emigrated in 1960 to the US, where he lives today...

 as a composition fellow at Tanglewood

Tanglewood

Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937. It was the venue of the Berkshire Festival.- History...

, which, at that time, was renowned as a bastion of abstract and atonal music. It was at Tanglewood that Daugherty met the composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...

. After hearing Daugherty's music at Tanglewood, Bernstein encouraged Daugherty to seriously consider integrating American popular music with concert music. In the early 1980s, Bernstein's eclectic attitude was rarely shared by composers of "serious" contemporary concert music.

One year later, in the summer of 1982, Daugherty traveled to Germany to attend the Darmstädter Ferienkurse (Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik - Darmstadt International Summer Courses in New Music). Darmstadt

Darmstadt

Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

 was one of the leading centers for new music in Europe, where the musical aesthetics of Theodor W. Adorno

Theodor W. Adorno

Theodor W. Adorno was a German sociologist, philosopher, and musicologist known for his critical theory of society....

 were still of great influence. Daugherty attended lectures given by composers, including Brian Ferneyhough

Brian Ferneyhough

Brian John Peter Ferneyhough is an English composer. His music is characterized by the extensive use of complex rhythmic tuplet notation which features in all his works...

 and Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...

, and performances by the Arditti String Quartet. At Darmstadt, Daugherty became friends with Karlheinz's son, the trumpet player Markus Stockhausen

Markus Stockhausen

Markus Pirol Stockhausen is a German trumpeter and composer.-Biography:Born in Cologne, he is the son of composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. At age four he appeared as "child at play" in his father's theatre piece Originals. He received his first piano lessons at age six, and at age twelve he began to...

. 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.

In the fall of 1982, Daugherty was invited by composer György Ligeti

György Ligeti

György Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...

 to study composition with him at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg

Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg

The Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg is one of the larger universities of music in Germany.It was founded 1950 as Staatliche Hochschule für Musik on the base of the former private acting school of Annemarie Marks-Rocke and Eduard Marks.Studies include various music types from church music...

. 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. At the time, Ligeti was interested in the music of Conlon Nancarrow

Conlon Nancarrow

Conlon Nancarrow was a United States-born composer who lived and worked in Mexico for most of his life. He became a Mexican citizen in 1955.Nancarrow is best remembered for the pieces he wrote for the player piano...

, who lived in isolation in Mexico City and composed complex polyrhythmic 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

International Society for Contemporary Music

The International Society for Contemporary Music is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music.ISCM was established in 1922, in Salzburg. Its core activity is the World Music Days Festival, held every year at a different location. The festival includes cutting edge productions...

) World Music Days. During 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 integrate computer music

Computer music

Computer music is a term that was originally used within academia to describe a field of study relating to the applications of computing technology in music composition; particularly that stemming from the Western art music tradition...

, jazz, rock, and American popular music with concert music. In the fall of 1984, Daugherty returned to America and devoted his career to doing just that.

Teaching: Oberlin, Michigan, residencies, and service

Daugherty is an active educator of young composers and advocate for contemporary music. As an Assistant Professor of Composition at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music

Oberlin Conservatory of Music

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, located on the campus of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, was founded in 1865 and is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. Students of Oberlin Conservatory enter a very broad network within the music world, as the school's alumni...

 (1986–91), Daugherty organized guest residencies of composers with performances of their music; these included Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...

, John Harbison

John Harbison

John Harris Harbison is an American composer, best known for his operas and large choral works.-Life:...

, Christopher Rouse, Roger Reynolds

Roger Reynolds

Roger Reynolds is an American composer born July 18, 1934 in Detroit, Michigan. He is a professor at the University of California at San Diego. He received an undergraduate degree in engineering physics from the University of Michigan where he later studied composition with Ross Lee Finney...

, Kenneth Gaburo

Kenneth Gaburo

-Life:Gaburo was born in Somerville, New Jersey. He served as a professor of music at the University of Illinois, the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Iowa. His notable students include James Tenney and Allen Strange...

, Morton Subotnick

Morton Subotnick

Morton Subotnick is an American composer of electronic music, best known for his Silver Apples of the Moon, the first electronic work commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch...

, Herbert Brun

Herbert Brun

Herbert Brün was a composer and pioneer of electronic and computer music. Born in Berlin, Germany, he taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1962 until he retired, several years before his death.-Career:...

, and Salvatore Martirano

Salvatore Martirano

Salvatore Giovanni Martirano was an American composer of contemporary classical music.Born in Yonkers, New York, he taught for many years at the University of Illinois...

. Daugherty also organized the 1988 Electronic Festival Plus Festival, which took place at Oberlin and featured music from over 50 composers. At Oberlin, Daugherty (playing synthesizer) also performed and recorded with jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd

Donald Byrd

Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...

 who taught there from 1987-89.

In 1991, Daugherty was invited to join the composition faculty at the University of Michigan School of Music (Ann Arbor). He replaced Pulitzer Prize winning composer Leslie Bassett

Leslie Bassett

Leslie Bassett is an American composer of classical music, and the University of Michigan’s Albert A. Stanley Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Composition...

, who retired after 40 years of service to the university. Daugherty was co-chair of the composition department with composer William Bolcom

William Bolcom

William Elden Bolcom is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, two Grammy Awards, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. Bolcom taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973–2008...

 from 1998–2001, and chair of the department from 2002-06. As a Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan, Daugherty has been and continues to be a mentor to many of today's most talented young composers, many who been recognized by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, have won composer awards from BMI

Broadcast Music Incorporated

Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...

 and ASCAP, and have received commissions from important orchestras, wind ensembles, and chamber ensembles, such as eighth blackbird

Eighth blackbird

eighth blackbird is a Grammy Award-winning contemporary music sextet based in Chicago. The group derives its name from the eighth stanza of Wallace Stevens' poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird...

, Kronos Quartet

Kronos Quartet

Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...

, and Dogs of Desire. These composers include, among others: Richard Adams, Stacy Garrop, Derek Bermel, Gabriela Frank, D. J. Sparr

D. J. Sparr

D. J. Sparr is an American composer and guitarist fluent in both classical and vernacular musical styles. He has performed with the Fondazione Arturo Toscanini, Eastman's "Musica Nova" Contemporary Music Ensemble, pop bands, and as a studio musician. D. J. premiered Michael Daugherty's electric...

, Joel Puckett

Joel Puckett

Joel Puckett was born in on June 27, 1977, in Atlanta, GA and is an American composer. He comes from a musical family; his father was a classical tubist and in his retirement still plays dixie-land jazz gigs around Atlanta. Joel completed his academic work at the University of Michigan, earning...

, David Little, Roshanne Etezady, Armando Bayolo, Kristen Kuster, Andrew Bishop, Daniel Roumain, Felicia Sandler, Stephen Newby, Carter Pann, Alexandra Vrebalov, Christopher Dietz, Ian Dicke, Elizabeth Kelly, Joshua Penman, David Schober, Kevin Beavers, James Lee III, Andrea Reinkemeyer, Alexis Bacon, William Zuckerman, Matthew Tommasini, Manly Romero, David Maki, and Arlene Sierra. Many of Daugherty's former students are also professors of composition at major universities and schools of music across America and abroad.

At the University of Michigan, Daugherty has organized residencies of guest composers with performances of their music; these include Henryk Górecki

Henryk Górecki

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki was a composer of contemporary classical music. He studied at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice between 1955 and 1960. In 1968, he joined the faculty and rose to provost before resigning in 1979. Górecki became a leading figure of the Polish avant-garde during...

, Louis Andriessen

Louis Andriessen

Louis Andriessen is a Dutch composer and pianist based in Amsterdam. He teaches composition at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague...

, Michael Colgrass

Michael Colgrass

Michael Colgrass is an American-born Canadian musician, composer, and educator.His musical career began in Chicago as a jazz musician . He graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in percussion performance and composition, including studies with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Festival...

, David Lang, Tania Leone, Michael Torke

Michael Torke

Michael Torke is an American composer who writes music influenced by jazz and minimalism. Sometimes described as a post-minimalist, his most postminimal piece is Four Proverbs, in which the syllable for each pitch is fixed and variations in the melody produce streams of nonsense words. Other works...

, Joan Tower

Joan Tower

Joan Tower is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by the New Yorker as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time", her bold and energetic compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world...

, and Betsy Jolas. He has also composed many new works, including Niagara Falls (1997) and Bells for Stokowski (2002), for the University of Michigan Symphony Band and its two most recent conductors, H. Robert Reynolds (directorship 1975-2001) and Michael Haithcock (directorship 2001–present).

Daugherty has served as a final judge for the Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) Student Composers Awards, the Gaudeamus International Composers Competition, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its main performance center is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood...

's Elaine Lebenborn Award for Female Composers. He has also been a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...

, Meet the Composer

Meet the Composer

Meet the Composer is an American organization founded in 1974 by the composer John Duffy as a project of the New York State Council on the Arts. It seeks to assist composers in making a living through writing music by sponsoring commissioning, residency, education, and audience interaction...

, and other arts organizations. Daugherty has served as a composer mentor for reading sessions of young composers music by organizations such as the American Composers Orchestra

American Composers Orchestra

The American Composers Orchestra is an American orchestra based in New York City. It is the only orchestra in the world dedicated solely to the creation, performance, preservation, and promulgation of music by American composers...

, Minnesota Composers Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Omaha Symphony, and the Young Composers Institute in Apeldoorn (Netherlands).

Daugherty is active as an advocate of new music with numerous orchestras throughout America. He was the Composer-in-Residence with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1999–2003), Louisville Orchestra

Louisville Orchestra

The Louisville Orchestra is the primary orchestra in Louisville, Kentucky and has been called the cornerstone of the Louisville arts scene. It was founded in 1937 by Robert Whitney and Charles Farnsley, Mayor of Louisville...

 (2000), Colorado Symphony Orchestra

Colorado Symphony Orchestra

Colorado’s only full-time professional orchestra, the Colorado Symphony embraces a tradition of musical excellence by presenting a diverse array of symphonic performances throughout the year...

 (2001–02), Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music (2001–04, 2006–08), Westshore Symphony Orchestra (2005–06), Eugene Symphony

Eugene Symphony

The Eugene Symphony is an American orchestra based in Eugene, Oregon. Its home venue is the Silva Concert Hall at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts.Approximately 27,000 people attend Eugene Symphony's classical and pops concert performances each year....

 (2006), the Henry Mancini Institute (2006), and Music from Angel Fire Chamber Music Festival (2006).

Daugherty is a frequent guest composer at American universities and schools of music, where he gives master classes on his music and works with young composers and student ensembles. Institutions of higher learning who have invited Daugherty include, among others, the University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...

, University of Colorado at Boulder

University of Colorado at Boulder

The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...

, Rice University

Rice University

William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...

, Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

, Syracuse University

Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...

, Indiana University

Indiana University

Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

, University of Iowa

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

, University of North Texas, Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...

, Louisiana State University

Louisiana State University

Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...

, Appalachian State University

Appalachian State University

Appalachian State University is a comprehensive , public, coeducational university located in Boone, North Carolina, United States. Appalachian State, also referred to as Appalachian, App State, or simply App, is the sixth largest institution in the University of North Carolina system...

, University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

, Eastman School of Music

Eastman School of Music

The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...

, The Hartt School, Juilliard School of Music, and Shenandoah University

Shenandoah University

Shenandoah University is a comprehensive private university located in Winchester, Virginia in the United States. It has an enrollment of approximately 3,800 students across more than ninety programs in six schools: College of Arts & Sciences, Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business, Shenandoah...

, Conservatory of Music.

In 2001, Daugherty was invited to present his music with performances by the United States Air Force

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

 Band at the Midwest Clinic "The Midnight Special" in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

. Also in the Chicago area, Daugherty has frequently participated in the Ravinia Festival Community Outreach program which is designed to promote and encourage new music by student ensembles in the Chicago Public Schools. Daugherty continues to work with many youth orchestras, wind ensembles, and bands across the country.

Awards and honors

Daugherty has received numerous awards, distinctions, and fellowships for his music, these include: the Kennedy Center Freidheim Award (1989) for his compositions Snap! and Blue 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), the Guggenheim Foundation

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Mr. and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died April 26, 1922...

 (1996), and the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (2000). In 2005, Daugherty received the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra

Lancaster Symphony Orchestra

The Lancaster Symphony Orchestra is a local orchestra nestled in the heart of Amish country in the All-America city of Lancaster, PA. They perform year-round at the city's historical Fulton Opera House and is consisted of many highly talented musicians from around the area.It is a member of the...

 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

Detroit Music Awards

The Detroit Music Awards was initially proposed in 1988. Presented by the Motor City Music Foundation, the multi-genre awards ceremony was established to bring recognition to Detroit area musicians. The first award show was held in 1992 at Detroit's Music Hall, and moved to the State Theatre in...

 and received the American Bandmasters Association

American Bandmasters Association

The American Bandmasters Association was formed in 1929 by Edwin Franko Goldman to promote concert band music. Goldman sought to raise esteem for concert bands among musicians and audiences...

 Ostwald Award

Ostwald Award

The Sousa/Ostwald Award is an annual award given by the American Bandmasters Association for a composition for concert band. It was first awarded in 1956, after band uniform suppliers Ernest and Adolph Ostwald established the ABA/Ostwald Award for the best band composition written in the previous...

 for his composition Raise the Roof for Timpani and Symphonic Band. Daugherty's composition entitled "Metropolis Symphony

Metropolis Symphony

Metropolis Symphony for Orchestra by American composer Michael Daugherty, is a five-movement symphony inspired by Superman comics. The entire piece was created over the span of five years with separate commissions for each movement. Individual movements may be performed separately, however, it is...

" recorded by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra won three Grammy Awards in 2011 in the categories of Best Classical Contemporary Composition, Best Orchestral Performance, and Best Engineered Album, Classical.

Orchestra

• Radio City (2011)
• Mount Rushmore for Chorus and Orchestra (2010)
• Letters from Lincoln for Baritone and Orchestra (2009)
• March of the Metro (2008)
• TROYJAM for Narrator and Orchestra (2008)
• Ghost Ranch (2005)
• Tell My Fortune (2004)
• Time Machine for Three Conductors and Orchestra (2003)
• Pachelbel's Key for Youth Orchestra (2002)
• Philadelphia Stories (2001)
• Motor City Triptych (2000)
• Sunset Strip (1999)
• Route 66 (1998)
• Leap Day for Youth Orchestra (1996)
• Metropolis Symphony
  Metropolis Symphony
  Metropolis Symphony for Orchestra by American composer Michael Daugherty, is a five-movement symphony inspired by Superman comics. The entire piece was created over the span of five years with separate commissions for each movement. Individual movements may be performed separately, however, it is...
  
  (1988–93)
• Flamingo (1991)

Concerti with Orchestra

• Trail of Tears for Flute and Orchestra (2010)
• Gee's Bend for Electric Guitar and Orchestra (2009)
• Deus Ex Machina for Piano and Orchestra (2007)
• Bay of Pigs for Classical Guitar and String Orchestra (2006)
• Above Clouds for Four Horns and Orchestra (2005)
• Crystal for Flute, Alto Flute, and Chamber Orchestra, from Tell My Fortune (2004)
• Once Upon a Castle: Symphonie Concertante for Organ and Orchestra (2003)
• Fire and Blood for Violin and Orchestra (2003)
• Raise the Roof for Timpani and Orchestra (2003)
• Tell-Tale Harp for Two Harps and Orchestra, from Philadelphia Stories (2001)
• UFO for Solo Percussion and Orchestra (1999)
• Hell's Angels for Bassoon Quartet and Orchestra (1998–99)
• Spaghetti Western for English Horn and Orchestra (1998)
• Le Tombeau de Liberace for Piano and Orchestra (1996)
• Mxyzptlk for 2 Flutes and Chamber Orchestra, from Metropolis Symphony (1988)

Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble

• Lost Vegas (2011)
• Bells for Stokowski
  Bells for Stokowski
  Bells for Stokowski for Orchestra and for Symphonic Band by American composer Michael Daugherty, is a 14 minute, single-movement tribute to one of the most prominent 20th century conductors, Leopold Stokowski. Bells for Stokowski for Orchestra stands alone as a concert piece, however, it is also...
  
  (2002)
• Alligator Alley (2002)
• Rosa Parks Boulevard for Three Trombones and Symphonic Band (2001)
• Red Cape Tango for Symphonic Band (1999)
• Niagara Falls (1997)
• Bizarro (1993)
• Desi (1991)

Concerti with Symphonic Band or Symphonic Winds

• Raise the Roof for Timpani and Symphonic Band (2007)
• Brooklyn Bridge for Clarinet and Symphonic Band (2005)
• UFO for Solo Percussion and Symphony Band (2000)
• Ladder to the Moon for Solo Violin and Chamber Ensemble (2006)
• Dead Elvis for Solo Bassoon and Chamber Ensemble
  Dead Elvis (composition)
  Dead Elvis for Solo Bassoon and Chamber Ensemble by American composer Michael Daugherty, is a 10 minute, single movement work inspired by the King of Rock-n-Roll, Elvis Presley. Dead Elvis was commissioned by bassoonist Charles Ullery and The Grand Tetons Festival, and Richard Pittman/Boston...
  
   (1993)

Voice and Orchestra or Chamber Ensemble

• Letters from Lincoln for Baritone and Orchestra (2009)
• TROYJAM for Narrator and Orchestra (2008)

Large Chamber Ensemble

• Asclepius Fanfare for Brass and Percussion (2007)
• Ladder to the Moon for Solo Violin, Wind Octet, Double Bass and Percussion (2006)
• Timbuktuba for Euphonium/Tubas Ensemble and Percussion (1996)
• What's That Spell? for Two Sopranos and Chamber Ensemble (1995)
• Motown Metal for Brass and Percussion (1994)
• Snap! (1987)
• Blue Like an Orange (1987)

Small Chamber Ensemble

• Bay of Pigs for Acoustic Guitar and String Quartet (2006)
• Diamond in the Rough for Violin, Viola and Percussion (2006)
• Regrets Only for violin, Cello and Piano (2006)
• Walk the Walk for Baritone Saxophone (or bass clarinet or contrabassoon) and Percussion (2005)
• Crystal, from Tell My Fortune for Flute, Alto Flute and Piano (2004)
• The High and the Mighty for Piccolo and Piano (2000)
• Used Car Salesman for Percussion Quartet (2000)
• Bounce for two Bassoons (1998)
• Sinatra Shag for Solo Violin, Bass Clarinet, Cello, Piano and Percussion (1997)
• Jackie's Song for Solo Cello (1996)
• Yo amaba a Lucy (I Loved Lucy) for Flute and Classical Guitar (1996)
• Lounge Lizards for two Pianos and two Percussion (1994)
• Shaken Not Stirred for three Percussion and Electric Bass (1994)
• Dead Elvis for Solo Bassoon and Chamber Ensemble (1993)
• Lex for Electric Violin, four Percussion, Timpani, Synthesizers and Electric Bass (1991)
• Firecracker for Solo Oboe, Flute(Piccolo), Bass Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Percussion and Piano (1991)
• Viola Zombie for two Violas (1991)

String Orchestra

• Bay of Pigs for Classical Guitar and String Orchestra (2006)
• Octet: Mendelssohn-Daugherty (2002)
• Strut (1989)

Large Brass Ensemble

• Asclepius Fanfare for Brass and Percussion (2007)
• Timbuktuba for Euphonium/Tubas Ensemble and Percussion (1996)
• Motown Metal for Brass and Percussion (1994)

Percussion Ensemble

• Used Car Salesman Percussion Quartet (2000)
• Shaken Not Stirred for three Percussion and Electric Bass (1994)
• Lex for Electric Violin, four Percussion, Timpani, Synthesizers and Electric Bass (1991)

String Quartet and Pre-Recorded Sound

• Paul Robeson Told Me (1994)
• Elvis Everywhere (1993)
• Sing Sing: J. Edgar Hoover (1992)

Solo Instrument

• Venetial Blinds (2002)
• Monk in the Kitchen (2001)
• Jackie's Song (1996)
• Piano Plus (1985)

Discography

• Route 66/Ghost Ranch/Sunset Strip/Time Machine (2011)
• Letters from Lincoln (2010)
• Metropolis Symphony/Deus ex Machina
  Deus ex machina
  A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.-Linguistic considerations:...
  
   (2009); three Grammy wins
• Fire and Blood/MotorCity Triptych (2009)
• Jackie O (2009)
• Bay of Pigs (2008)
• Raise the Roof/Niagara Falls/Brooklyn Bridge (2008)
• Philadelphia Stories/UFO (2004)
• Bells for Stokowski (2004)
• Hell's Angels (2003)
• American Icons (1999)
• Metropolis Symphony
  Metropolis Symphony
  Metropolis Symphony for Orchestra by American composer Michael Daugherty, is a five-movement symphony inspired by Superman comics. The entire piece was created over the span of five years with separate commissions for each movement. Individual movements may be performed separately, however, it is...
  
  /Bizarro (1997)
• Sing Sing: J. Edgar Hoover (1996)
• Elvis Everywhere (1995)

External links

• Official website
• Michael Daugherty on Naxos
• Michael Daugherty at Boosey and Hawkes
• Michael Daugherty at Faber Music
• Michael Daugherty at Peermusic Classical

Interviews

• Interview with Martin Perlich
• NewMusicBox cover: Michael Daugherty in conversation with Frank J. Oteri, December 11, 2006 (includes video)
• Icon Artist: Michael Daugherty Michael Daugherty in conversation with Frank J. Oteri, NewMusicBox Published: January 1, 2007
• Michael Daugherty interview from American Mavericks site (audio file)
• Listen to Michael Daugherty's jazz piano performance at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music's Behind the Notes concert, August 5, 2007
• Metropolis Symphony Naxos Interview
• Pendulum New Music Interview
• Michael Daugherty: In His Own Words