George Daugherty

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George Daugherty (born 1955) is an American

conductor, director, producer, and writer
.

Family life, education, and early career

Daugherty was born in Pendleton, Indiana, in 1955, the only son of George Daugherty Sr., an Indiana State Policeman who eventually became Commander of the Indiana State Police, and Charlene Elizabeth Beeson Daugherty, a teacher and educator. Although not from a musical family per se, Daugherty's ancestors included many who pursued their own artistic careers, including his great great great grandfather, American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Daugherty lived in Pendleton for his entire childhood and teenage years, and began studying piano with noted pianist Elizabeth Edmundson at the age of 4. He began cello studies in his teenage years. He attended college at

Eugene Collins Pulliam / Hilton U. Brown Journalism Scholarship to Butler. At the age of 20, Daugherty was appointed an assistant conductor of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra, where he worked and studied under conductor/composer Thomas Bricetti. While there, he also continued his collegiate studies, having transferred from Butler to Indiana University
.

In 1975 at the age of 20, he also founded his own orchestra, The Pendleton Festival Symphony, and upon securing grants from the Indiana Arts Commission and the

Royal Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, and the Joffrey Ballet. One of his major Pendleton Festival productions, a tribute on the 100th birthday of the legendary Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, went on to appear at New York's Lincoln Center Festival, and became a Canadian Broadcasting Company television special starring Leslie Caron
and an international cast of dancers.

In 1977, Daugherty was accepted as an advanced opera conducting student at the

University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he studied conducting and opera coaching/accompanying with conductor Kelly Hale, and studied opera repertoire and interpretation with famed Italian basso Italo Tajo. He left the University of Cincinnati in late 1979, when he had the unexpected opportunity to begin conducting for American Ballet Theatre prima ballerina Gelsey Kirkland, which eventually resulted in a position with ABT itself. His major symphony orchestra conducting debut took place in that same year, in November 1979, with his first performance with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in the Eastman Theatre
.

Current career

Daugherty has conducted international

Dallas Symphony, and the Houston Symphony
.

He made his conducting debut with the

Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony
.

Internationally, he has conducted often at the

DR Koncerthuset, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra at the Petronas Philharmonic Hall
, and The RTÉ Concert Orchestra in the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland.

He has guest conducted a number of major choral ensembles, including the

Sir Frederick Ashton's "Lez Rendez-vous" and "Thais Pas de Deux", and Clark Tippet's "Bruch Violin Concerto". In 2016, he was appointed Music Director and Principal Conductor of the iconic and legendary Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo and made his debut with the company in March, 2017, in performances in the Opera House of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
.

Since 1990, he has been notable for creating symphony orchestra concerts which combine film and multimedia with

Primetime Emmy Award
and five Emmy nominations. He has created all of his television and film projects in collaboration with producing partner David Ka Lik Wong. In addition to their professional partnership, Daugherty and Wong have been life partners since 1989, and were married in San Francisco in 2013, where they have lived for the past 15 years.

Awards

Daugherty won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1996 as executive producer of

Indiana State Senate. His work has also been recognized by the San Francisco Public Library, which named him a "Library Laureate" in 2006, and by the Library of Congress
National Film Archives, which honored him in 2007.

Partial filmography

Composer / music director

Year Title
1980
Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon
 (1980) (conductor)
1982 Pavlova: A Tribute To The Legendary Ballerina (conductor, musical director, creative consultant)
1986 Die Fledermaus (conductor, orchestrator)
1987 Christmas Every Day (composer)
1987 Blood Harvest (composer)
1988 The Canterville Ghost (composer)
1990 Merrie Melodies: Starring Bugs Bunny and Friends (1990) (composer)
1990 Britannica's Tales Around the World (1990) (composer)
1991 (Blooper) Bunny (conductor, musical director, composer)
1994 Chariots of Fur (conductor, musical director, composer)
1995 Another Froggy Evening (conductor, musical director, composer)
1995 Peter and the Wolf (conductor, musical director, off-line video editor)
1996 Superior Duck (musical director)
1997 From Hare to Eternity (musical director)

As producer, writer, and/or director

1992 The Magical World of Chuck Jones (producer, director)
1993 Rhythm & Jam (producer, writer, director)
1995 Peter and the Wolf (producer, writer, director)
2001 Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat (producer, writer)

References

  1. ^ "Music Alumni". Butler University web site. Butler University. Retrieved July 18, 2009.

External links

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