Biografi
George Daugherty, born in Pendleton, Indiana, studied at Butler University's Jordan College of Music, Indiana University, and The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. At 19, he founded The Pendleton Festival Symphony, which evolved into a professional summer orchestra thriving in Indiana during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The orchestra featured diverse international guest artists 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, as well as prominent choral groups like The Harvard Glee Club. During this period, the orchestra received significant funding from The Indiana Arts Commission, The National Endowment for the Arts, and Lilly Endowment.
A multifaceted director, producer, and conductor, Daugherty is recognized as one of the most versatile figures in the music world. Over his 40-year conducting career, he has worked with leading orchestras, ballet companies, opera houses, and concert artists worldwide. An Emmy Award-winning and five-time Emmy-nominated creator, his professional accomplishments include directing, writing, and producing for television, film, innovative concerts, and live theater. He has conducted on every continent and is perhaps best known for creating the cult hit film-and-live orchestra concerts "Bugs Bunny On Broadway" and "Bugs Bunny at the Symphony," which have entertained nearly two million people globally, celebrating the golden era of Warner Bros. animation and Carl Stalling’s orchestral scores.
Together with producing partner David Wong, Daugherty has developed several major music-based television productions for ABC, including a prime-time animation-and-live-action adaptation of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and The Wolf, which he created, co-wrote, conducted, and directed. This project earned him a Prime Time Emmy Award, a Writers Guild Award nomination, and multiple other honors.
Daugherty and Wong also collaborated with Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, on a television adaptation of her acclaimed children's book The Chinese Siamese Cat. This Emmy Award-winning animated series premiered on PBS in fall 2001 with an unprecedented advance order for 80 segments. Daugherty served as executive producer and wrote many of the episodes. The series received several Emmy nominations and won one.
The duo also earned an Emmy nomination for Rhythm & Jam, a series on ABC that introduced teenagers to the fundamentals of music. To date, Daugherty has received five Emmy nominations.
Daugherty has led numerous prominent American and international orchestras, ballet companies, and opera houses. His engagements include sold-out performances with The New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center; an 18-city tour with The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra featuring Dame Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer; and appearances with The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Seattle Symphony, The San Francisco Symphony, The Los Angeles Philharmonic (22 performances at The Hollywood Bowl), The National Symphony, The Sydney Symphony, American Ballet Theatre, The Sydney Opera House, The Munich State Opera Orchestra and 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 Russia, 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 Reggio Emilia.
Currently, he serves as music director of London's Sinfonia Britannia, which debuted at The Wales Millennium Centre in March 2005 and has since toured throughout the UK. The orchestra made its U.S. debut in San Francisco in February 2006, receiving praise from the San Francisco Chronicle as "spectacular." His musical based on the life and music of Ivor Novello premiered at The Wales Millennium Centre in 2005 and is scheduled to open in London's West End in September 2006.
In 1990, Daugherty created, directed, and conducted the successful Broadway musical Bugs Bunny On Broadway, a live orchestra and film stage production that sold out its extended run at New York's Gershwin Theatre. The production has since received critical acclaim and played to sold-out audiences worldwide.
