George Daugherty
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George Daugherty (b. 1955) is an American-born conductor and director of British and Irish heritage. He has conduced most of American’s major symphony orchestras, as well as for international ballet companies, and in a large array of leading international opera houses and concert halls. He has made a specialty of creating symphony orchestra concerts which combine film and multi-media with classical music, with the goal of bringing new audiences to the genre of symphony orchestra music. His most successful concert in this genre, Bugs Bunny On Broadway, combines classic Warner Bros. Studios Looney Tunes projected on a large screen while their original scores are played by a live symphony. This production has been touring the world since 1990, and has played such varied venues as The Hollywood Bowl, The Sydney Opera House, The Kremlin Palace, The Royal Festival Hall, and many other prestigious concert halls, to a total international audience of almost 2 million people. He has also produced, directed, and written a number of television and film projects which center around music themes, for which he has won a Primetime Emmy Award, and received five Emmy nominations, as well as other awards.
EARLY YEARS
He was born in 1955 in Pendleton, Indiana, to George and Charlene Daugherty. He began studying piano at the age of five, and studied music throughout his entire childhood. He studied at Butler University Jordan College of Music, Indiana University School of Music (where he pursued a work-study conducting program with The Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra, and The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His principal conducting teachers were Dr. Kelly Hale, Thomas Briccetti, and Dr. John Colbert. His principal piano teachers were Elizabeth Edmundson, Martin Marks, and Frank Cooper. He studied cello with Shirley Evans Tabachnick, Carol Oberhausen, Anne McCafferty, and Dennis McCafferty. He studied opera coaching with famed Italian Metropolitan Opera and La Scala basso Italo Tajo.
He founded his own orchestra in Indiana at the age of 20, The Pendleton Festival Symphony, and made his conducting debut with Metropolitan Opera soprano Roberta Peters, who would be a major positive influence in his career. During his early 20’s, he also conducted a number of concerti for violinist Eugene Fodor.
PROFESSIONAL CLASSICAL CONDUCTING CAREER
In 1979, Mr. Daugherty made his professional guest conducting career with The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in the prestigious Eastman Theatre, at the age of 23.
Today, he is a busy guest conductor who regularly conducts for such major orchestras as The Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Houston Symphony, and other major American orchestras.
A San Francisco resident, he has also been a popular guest conductor with The San Francisco Symphony since his debut with the orchestra in 1998, performing with the SFS frequently in Davies Symphony Hall, as well as numerous performances around the Bay Area.
He has been a frequent quest conductor at The Sydney Opera House since 1996, and in 2002 and 2005, he returned to guest conduct The Sydney Symphony for one week engagements at the Sydney Opera House. He also made his debut with The Melbourne Symphony in Melbourne's Victoria Arts Centre in 2002, and returned for a one week engagement in 2005, followed by debuts with The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and The Auckland Philharmonic. His international conducting appearances have ranged from Moscow’s Kremlin Palace to Shanghai’s Grand Theatre.
Daugherty has appeared with numerous other major American and international symphony orchestras, ballet companies, and opera houses, including The Sydney Opera House Orchestra, The Munich State Opera Orchestra, The Pittsburgh Symphony, The National Arts Centre Orchestra, The Atlanta Symphony, The Cincinnati Symphony, The Vancouver Symphony, The Buffalo Philharmonic, The Louisville Orchestra, The Indianapolis Symphony, The Moscow Symphony, Seiji Ozawa’s New Japan Philharmonic, The Shanghai Radio Orchestra, The Seoul Philharmonic, The Kremlin Palace Orchestra of The Russian Federation, The Kiev Ballet, The Nashville Symphony, The Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, The Columbus Symphony, The RCA Symphony Orchestra, The Saddlers Wells Royal Ballet, Mexico City's Bellas Artes Opera House, The Montreal Symphony, The Winnipeg Symphony, The Ft. Worth Symphony, The Rochester Philharmonic, The New Orleans Symphony, The Venezuela Symphony, Mexico's Xalapa Symphony, The Oklahoma City Philharmonic, The National Arts Centre Orchestra, and such major Italian opera houses as Rome's Teatro Argentina, Turin's Teatro Regio Torino, Regio Emilia's Teatro Municipale Valli, in Florence's Teatro Apollo.
Mr. Daugherty has also been a frequent conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, with whom he conducted “A Royal Christmas,” a 15 city U.S. and Canadian concert tour with the orchestra and guest artists Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Charlotte Church, The Westminster Choir and Bell Ringers, and ballet dancers from The Royal Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Kyev Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and other major international companies. The tour played sold-out performances in such major North American cities as Boston, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Ottawa, and the New York City area.
Daugherty made his debut with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra in London’s Royal Festival Hall in 1999, and has also since conducted the orchestra on tour throughout The United Kingdom. His performances with the RPCO have received rave reviews from such diverse international publications as The Times of London, The Boston Globe, and The Ottawa Citizen.
He is currently Music Director and Conductor of London’s new world-class chamber and symphony orchestra Sinfonia Britannia, which made its world premiere at Easter 2005 during a one week engagement at the newly-opened Wales Millennium Centre, in the presence of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. The orchestra made its U.S. tour debut in San Francisco in February 2006, and made its London West End debut in September 2006.
BALLET CONDUCTING CAREER
In the early days of his career, Daugherty specialized in conducting for major American and international ballet companies. He made his debut with American Ballet Theatre at the age of 26, and also conducted for The Munich State Opera Ballet, The Eglevsky Ballet, Ballet Met, Denver Ballet, Delta Festival Ballet, Chicago International Festival of Ballet, Ruth Page Ballet, and many other companies. He was Music Director and Principal Conductor of The Louisville Ballet for five seasons, and was also Music Director of The Chicago City Ballet, and Founding Music Director of Ballet Chicago, where he conducted the world premiere of Daniel Duell's "Glazunov Violin Concerto" ballet, performed by violinist Cho Liang Lin. Daugherty has conducted for some of the ballet world's greatest stars, including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gelsey Kirkland, Suzanne Farrell, Natalia Makarova, Merrill Ashley, Amanda McKerrow, Marianna Tcherkassky, Lis Jeppesen, Cynthia Gregory, Alicia Alonso, Marcia Haydee, Merle Park, Kevin MacKenzie, Richard Cragun, Galina Panova, Cynthia Harvey, Anthony Dowell, Patrick Dupond, Valentina Kozlova, Leonid Kozlov, Sean Lavery, Adam Luders, Ib Andersen, Robert Hill, David Wall, John Meehan, Eleanor D'Antuono, Yoko Morishita, Ann Marie De Angelo, Danilo Radojevic, David Peregrine, and many others.
He worked with choreographer George Balanchine during the restaging of one of his final ballets, "Mozartiana," for its Chicago City Ballet premiere in 1982, starring New York City Ballet principal dancers Suzanne Farrell and Ib Anderson. He conducted frequently for Farrell during the 1980s, in such ballets as Paul Mejia's full-length production of Prokofiev's "Cinderella," as well as Balanchine masterworks "Tzigane," "Tchaikovsky Pas De Deux," "Apollo," "Jewels," "Serenade," "Allegro Brillante," "Theme and Variations," and numerous others.
In addition to Balanchine, Daugherty worked with a large number of major international choreographers and regisseurs, conducting both full-length classical ballets as well as revivals and new works, including those by Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, John Cranko, Maurice Bejart, Roland Petit, John Neumier, William Forsyth, Cho San Gho, Ruth Page, Alexandra Danilova, Natalia Makarova, Frederick Frankin, Alun Jones, Domy Reiter-Soffer, and Twyla Tharp.
TELEVISION AND FILM CAREER
In addition to his conducting career, Daugherty has made a number of highly successful, award-winning television shows and films themed around music, the arts, and culture. As a director, writer, and producer of music-based television programs, and in partnership with his producing partner David Ka Lik Wong, Daugherty has created several major productions for the ABC Television Network project, including a primetime animation-and-live action production of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and The Wolf, which he created, co-wrote, and directed (and for which he conducted the score with The Utah Symphony.) Peter and The Wolf starred Lloyd Bridges, Kirstie Alley, and Sleepless in Seattle's Ross Malinger (as Peter), along with new characters created by legendary Warner Bros. animation director Chuck Jones. The production -- and Daugherty -- earned a coveted Emmy Award when Peter and The Wolf was named Outstanding Primetime Children's Television Program. He also received a second Emmy nomination for Outstanding Music Direction for the production, as well as a Writers Guild of America / WGA Award nomination. He also received “best of fest” awards from The Chicago International Film Festival, and The Houston International Film Festival for the production.
He collaborated with The Joy Luck Club author Amy Tan on a television adaptation of her celebrated children's book The Chinese Siamese Cat. The Emmy Award-winning series debuted on PBS in the fall of 2001 as a daily-animated children's television series, propelled by PBS' unprecedented advance order for 80 segments. Daugherty executive produced, and wrote a large number of the animated tales.
Daugherty also received an Emmy nomination for Rhythm & Jam, his ABC television network of specials which taught the basics of music to a teenage audience. He has now received five Emmy nominations to date.
Daugherty also directed the 1991 Warner Bros. documentary The Magical World of Chuck Jones, celebrating the career of the legendary animation director on his 80th birthday, and featuring interviews from a stellar group of artists whose work had been influenced by Jones' legendary comedic creations, including Whoopi Goldberg, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, George Lucas, Matt Groening, Danny Elfman, Joe Dante, and many others.
His first television project was “Pavlova,” a documentary/bio pic/ballet project produced by The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and The Societe Radio-Canada, starring Leslie Caron, and an international cast of major ballet dancers. His second television project was a PBS production of Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus in 1985-86, for which he received his first Emmy Award, for music direction.
BUGS BUNNY ON BROADWAY
In 1990, Daugherty created, directed, and conducted the hit Broadway musical Bugs Bunny On Broadway, a live-orchestra-and-film stage production which sold-out its extended run at New York's Gershwin Theatre on Broadway, and has since played to critical acclaim and sold-out houses in thirteen different Los Angeles engagements, as well as at Washington D.C.'s Wolftrap, Philadelphia Orchestra's Mann Music Center, Detroit's Meadowbrook, Cleveland Orchestra's Blossom Festival, The New York Philharmonic's Saratoga Center for The Performing Arts, Pittsburgh Symphony's Heinz Hall, and in Vancouver, Denver, Detroit, Chicago, San Diego, Orange County, and elsewhere. Bugs Bunny On Broadway embarked on a worldwide concert tour in 1996 with an international (and sold-out) one week engagement at the famed Sydney Opera House in Australia, and subsequent international performances in London, Wales, Central and South America, Russia, Japan, China, and Korea.
OTHER AWARDS
In 1998, Daugherty received the biannual Indiana Governor's Arts Award from the state of his Indiana, where he was born, in recognition for his artistic contributions not only in Indiana, but also throughout the rest of the country. In receiving the award, Daugherty joined a prestigious list of previous Hoosier honorees, including composers Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael, conductors Raymond Lepard and John Nelson, cellist Janos Starker, violinists Joshua Bell and Josef Gingold, architect Michael Graves, designer Bill Blass, and novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr. In 2005, he was also named a Sagamore of The Wabash by the late Indiana Governor Frank O’Bannon, the highest award which can be bestowed upon a performing artist from the state governor. Daugherty’s mother, an Indiana educator, teacher, and designer of public park gardens and spaces, is also a Sagamore of The Wabash, making them the first mother and son pairing to win the award in Indiana history
In 2005, Daugherty was also named a Library Laureate of The San Francisco Public Library for his contributions to children’s books, reading, and literature, joining a distinguished list of authors who have been awarded the title.
PARTIAL FILMOGRAPHY
COMPOSER / MUSIC DIRECTOR
From Hare to Eternity (1997) (musical director)
Superior Duck (1996) (musical director)
Peter and the Wolf (1996) (TV) (conductor) (musical director) (off-line video editor)
Another Froggy Evening (1995) (conductor) (musical director) (composer)
Chariots of Fur (1994) (conductor) (musical director) (composer)
(Blooper) Bunny! (1991) (conductor) (musical director) (composer)
Blood Harvest (1987)
... aka The Marvelous Mervo (USA: video title) (composer)
Fledermaus, Die (1986/II) (TV) (conductor) (orchestrator)
"Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon" (1980) TV Series (conductor)
PRODUCER
"Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat" (2001) TV Series (executive producer) (unknown episodes)
Peter and the Wolf (1996) (TV) (executive producer)
"Rhythm & Jam" (1993) (mini) TV Series (executive producer)
The Magical World of Chuck Jones (1992) (producer)
WRITER
"Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat" (2001) TV Series
Peter and the Wolf (1996) (TV) (written by) (WGA)
"Rhythm & Jam" (1993) (mini) TV Series (WGA)
DIRECTOR
Peter and the Wolf (1996) (TV)
"Rhythm & Jam" (1993) (mini) TV Series (Director, Editor)
The Magical World of Chuck Jones (1992)
LINKS
IMBD Profile: http://imdb.com/name/nm0202296/
