Michael Daugherty

From Wind Repertory Project

Michael Daugherty

Biography

Michael Daugherty (born 1954 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa) is an American composer. His father was a dance band drummer, and he is the oldest of five sons, all of whom are professional musicians. He studied composition at North Texas State University from 1972 to 1976 (now known as the University of North Texas) and at the Manhattan School of Music from 1976 to 1978. He also studied computer music at Pierre Boulez’s famous IRCAM in Paris from 1979 to 1980. Daugherty received his doctorate in composition from Yale University in 1986.

His composition teachers have included György Ligeti, Jacob Druckman, Earle Brown, and Roger Reynolds. He also collaborated with jazz legend Gil Evans in New York. After teaching composition from 1986 to 1991 at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Daugherty joined the staff at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he is currently Professor of Composition. He was Composer-in-Residence with the Detroit Symphony from 1999 to 2003, and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra from 2001 to 2003.

Daugherty first gained national recognition when Blue Like an Orange (1987) won a Kennedy Center Friedheim Award in 1989. The work combined polyrhythmic counterpoint with a playful use of popular music. This work established the characteristics of his style, a style that has been developed in such works as his Metropolis Symphony (based on the Superman comic), Desi (based on Desi Arnaz’s “Ricky Ricardo” from I Love Lucy), Le Tombeau de Liberace, and Dead Elvis. Works commissioned by the Kronos Quartet include Sing Sing: J. Edgar Hoover (1992) and Elvis Everywhere (1993) for three Elvis impersonators and string quartet. Daugherty is not afraid to poke fun at American icons, and has made his mark composing music that the layman can relate to – if only just the title. About this penchant, Daugherty has said:

"For me icons serve as a way to have an emotional reason to compose a new work. I get ideas for my compositions by browsing through secondhand book stores, antique shops, and small towns that I find driving on the back roads of America. The icon can be an old postcard, magazine, photograph, knick-knack, matchbook, piece of furniture or roadmap. Like Ives and Mahler, I use icons in my music to provide the listener and performer with a layer of reference. However, one does need the reference of the icon to appreciate my music. It is merely one level among many in the musical, contrapuntal fabric of my compositions."

Works for Winds

Asclepius
Alligator Alley (2003)
Bells for Stokowski (2002)
Bizarro (1993)
Brooklyn Bridge (2005) for Solo Clarinet and Symphonic Band
Desi (1991)
Motown Metal (1994) - for large brass ensemble
Niagara Falls (1997)
Raise the Roof (2007) for Timpani and Symphonic Band
Red Cape Tango from Metropolis Symphony (1993) (transcribed by Mark Spede 1998)
Rosa Parks Boulevard (2001)
UFO (2000) with Solo Percussion