Daugherty, Michael

Daugherty, Michael , innovative American composer; b. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, April 28, 1954. His father was a dance band drummer and all four of his brothers became professional musicians. He grew up playing in rock, jazz, and funk bands in Iowa, and composed his first orchestral piece while attending North Tex. State Univ. (1972–76). He then went to N.Y., where he studied with Wuorinen at the Manhattan School of Music (M. A., 1976) and with Druckman, Brown, Reynolds, Rands, and Evans at Yale Univ. (M.M.A., 1982; D.M.A., 1986). He then traveled to Hamburg, where he studied with Ligeti at the Hochschule für Musik (1982–84). He also studied at IRCAM on a Fulbright fellowship (1978–80). He received an NEA Composition Fellowship in 1980, and from 1986 to 1991 was on the faculty at the Oberlin (Ohio) Coll. Cons, of Music, serving as director of its Summer Electronic Music Workshop. In 1991 he joined the faculty of the Univ. of Mich, in Ann Arbor. Daugherty’s music is often inspired by contemporary American popular culture. His Snap!—Blue Like an Orange (1987) won a Kennedy Friedheim Award.

Works

DRAMATIC Opera : Jackie O (1997).ORCH.: 5 Seasons (1980); Metropolis Symphony (1988–93); Mxyzptlk for 2 Flute Soloists and Chamber Orch. (1988; Cleveland, Feb. 6,1989); Oh Lois! (St. Paul, Minn., April 4, 1989); Lex (1990); Desi for Symphonic Winds (1991); Bizarro for Symphonic Winds (1993).CHAMBERENSEMBLE : Future Music, Part I (1984); Future Funk (1985); Piano Plus (1985); Re: Percussion (1986); Blue Like an Orange (1987); Snap!—Blue Like an Orange (1987); Bounce

I (1988); Lex (1989); Sing Sing: J. Edgar Hoover for String Quartet (1992); Elvis Everywhere for 3 Elvis Impersonators and String Quartet (1993).OTHER: Synthesizer and computer pieces.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire