Born in Pendleton, Indiana, George Daugherty attended Butler University
Jordan College of Music, Indiana University, and The University of
Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. At the age of 19, he formed
The Pendleton Festival Symphony, which grew into a professional summer
orchestra which flourished in Indiana during the late 1970s and early
1980's, and brought a diverse slate of international guests artists to
perform with it in Central Indiana, including Metropolitan Opera
singers Roberta Peters and Rosalind Elias, violinist Eugene Fodor,
principal dancers and ensembles from The New York City Ballet, The
American Ballet Theatre, and The Joffrey Ballet, and major choral
groups including The Harvard Glee Club. The Pendleton Festival Symphony
was supported during that period from major grants and funding from The
Indiana Arts Commission, The National Endowment for the Arts, and Lilly
Endowment.
A director/producer/conductor, he is known as one of the music world's
most diverse artists. In addition to his 40-year conducting career
which has included appearances with the world's leading orchestras,
ballet companies, opera houses, and concert artists, Daugherty is also
an Emmy Award winning / five-time Emmy nominated creator whose
professional profile includes major credits as a director, writer, and
producer for television, film, innovative and unique concerts, and the
live theater. He has conducted on every continent of the world, but is
perhaps best known for the creation of his cult hit film-and-live
orchestra concerts "Bugs Bunny On Broadway" and "Bugs Bunny at the Symphony," which have played to almost
two million audience members worldwide, celebrating the classic era of
Warner Bros. animation and their inspired Carl Stalling orchestra
scores.
As a director, writer, and producer of music-based television programs,
Daugherty and producing partner David Wong have created several major
productions for the ABC Television Network project, including a prime
time animation-and-live action production of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter
and The Wolf, which he created, co-wrote, conducted, and directed, and
for which he won a Prime Time Emmy Award, as well as a Writer's Guild
Award Nomination, and numerous other awards.
Daugherty and Wong also 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 also wrote a large number of the
animated tales. The series was nominated for several Emmys, and won
one.
Daugherty and Wong 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 has conducted for scores of major American and international
symphony orchestras, ballet companies, and opera houses, including several sold-out engagements with The New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center, as well as with The
Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra (conducting an 18 city tour with
Dame Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer), The Philadelphia
Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Seattle Symphony, The San
Francisco Symphony, The Los Angeles Philharmonic (in 22 performances at The Hollywood Bowl), The National
Symphony, The Sydney Symphony, American Ballet Theatre, The Sydney
Opera House, The Munich State Opera Orchestra, The Munich State Opera
Ballet, The Houston Symphony, The Fort Worth Symphony, 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, The Kremlin Palace Orchestra of The Russian Federation, The
Kiev Ballet, 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 Rochester Philharmonic, The New Orleans Symphony, The
Venezuela Symphony, Mexico's Xalapa Symphony, The Oklahoma City
Philharmonic, and major Italian opera houses in Rome, Florence, Turin,
and Regio Emilia.
He is currently music director of London's new orchestra Sinfonia
Britannia, which made it's debut at The Wales Millennium Centre in
March, 2005, and has since appeared throughout the U.K., as well as a
February, 2006 U.S. debut in San Francisco which the San Francisco
Chronicle called "spectacular." His musical based on the life and music
of Ivor Novello premiered at The Wales Millennium Centre in 2005, and
will premiere on London's West End in September, 2006.
As a director, writer, and producer of music-based television programs,
Daugherty and producing partner David Wong have created several major
productions for the ABC Television Network project, including a prime
time animation-and-live action production of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter
and The Wolf, which he created, co-wrote, conducted, and directed, and
for which he won a Prime Time Emmy Award. Daugherty and Wong also
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 also wrote a large number of the animated tales.
Daugherty and Wong 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.
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 all over the world.
