Daugherty Is Husa Visiting Professor of Composition

Michael Daugherty, composer in residence with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and professor of composition at the University of Michigan, will be the focus of three events at the College in February and March as the School of Music’s 2000–2001 Karel Husa Visiting Professor of Composition. In addition to the public events, Daugherty will provide individual instruction for composition students in the School of Music.

On Sunday, February 25, the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Grant Cooper, will perform a selection of Daugherty’s works at 8:15 p.m. in Ford Hall. On February 26 Daugherty will present a lecture at 8:15 p.m. in the Iger Lecture Hall. He will also give a lecture on Monday, March 26, at 8:15 p.m. in the lecture hall. All events are free and open to the public.

Daugherty has created a niche in the music world by composing concert music inspired by contemporary American popular culture. His Metropolis Symphony and Bizarro, for example, pay homage to characters from Superman comic books, and Desi is a Latin big band tribute to Desi Arnaz. His chamber music includes Sing Sing: J. Edgar Hoover and Elvis Everywhere, for three Elvis impersonators and string quartet. His recent compositions include Route 66, an orchestral work; Spaghetti Western, a horn concerto; and Hell’s Angels, a work for four bassoons and orchestra.

Born in 1954 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Daugherty is the son of a dance band drummer and the oldest of five brothers, all professional musicians. He grew up playing keyboards in jazz, rock, and funk bands in Iowa. At North Texas State University in the early 1970s he continued performing jazz and composed his first orchestral work. In 1976 he began studying composition at the Manhattan School of Music and playing piano for modern dance companies.

In the following years, Daugherty was a Fulbright fellow, composing computer music at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique in Paris. He also completed a doctorate in composition at Yale University in 1986. After teaching music composition for several years at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Daugherty joined the music composition faculty at the University of Michigan in 1991.

Daugherty has received numerous awards, including the Stoeger Prize from Lincoln Center and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. His music has been performed by prominent orchestras in the United States, including the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics as well as the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, San Francisco, and St. Louis. Performances of his work abroad include those by the Melbourne Symphony, the BBC Symphony, the London Philharmonia, the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, and the Netherlands Wind Ensemble.

The Husa visiting professorship was created 14 years ago to honor former longtime faculty member and Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Karel Husa. Past Husa visiting professors have included Samuel Adler, John Corigliano, George Crumb, Libby Larson, and John Harbison.

For more information on the concert schedule at Ithaca College, visit the School of Music Web page at www.ithaca.edu/music.