LATEST NEWS
WORLD PREMIERE OF MICHAEL DAUGHERTY’S DANCING IN THE STREETS for orchestra (2026)
In celebration of America’s 250th anniversary and the 100th anniversary of the Martha Graham Dance Company
World Premiere on June 19, 2026
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Manfred Honeck, Music Director
Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, PA
details & tickets
- “Got to Dance!” (Ode to Gene Kelly)
- “Martha’s Maze” (Ode to Martha Graham)
- “Dance a Little Longer” (Ode to Woody and Marjorie Guthrie)
WORLD PREMIERE OF MICHAEL DAUGHERTY’S VAN VECHTEN VARIATIONS for solo piano (2025)
Inspired by the photographs of Carl Van Vechten
Commissioned by the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation
Jack Gao, piano
Winner of the Naumburg International Piano Competition (2023) and Martha Argerich Piano Award (2025)
Monday, September 29, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
Van Vechten Variations is inspired by the photographs of Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964), who created striking portraits of influential artists and performers of the early 20th century. | read program note
HARP OF AGES
FOR SOLO HARP AND ORCHESTRA (2023)
Harp of Ages (2023) for harp and orchestra was commissioned by the Colorado Symphony for Principal Harpist, Courtney Hershey Bress. The world premiere was given by Courtney Hershey Bress, solo harp, with the Colorado Symphony conducted by Andrew Litton, at the Boettcher Concert Hall, Denver Performing Arts Complex on May 12, 2023.
The harp is one of the oldest and most beautiful instruments, from early civilizations to the present. Like the seven pedals on the modern harp, my concerto is divided into seven movements that reflect on many ages of the harp. Each movement is associated with a memorable figure associated with the harp:
- Sappho
- Sister Juana’s Hymn
- Uhura’s Song
- David’s Prayer
- Harpo Speaks
- Detroit Blue
- Irish Wedding
SUMMER AND SMOKE
BALLET IN ONE ACT (2023)
based on the 1948 play by Tennessee Williams
Music: Michael Daugherty
Choreography: Cathy Marston
Commissioned by: Houston Ballet and American Ballet Theatre
World premiere: Houston Ballet on March 9, 2023
Duration: one hour
The music for Summer and Smoke was composed in 2022-23 for the ballet choreographed by Cathy Marston, inspired by the Tennessee Williams 1948 play of the same title.
more info
Review: “I don’t remember any previous commissioned score for Houston Ballet with such a lucid mix of contrasting, overlapping motifs as this one by the Grammy Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty. His melodies for flute, clarinet, strings and horns evocatively reflect the characters and emotions they represent. A small sea of xylophones punctuates it all, able to sound both primal and orderly. Music director Ermanno Florio and the Houston Ballet Orchestra seemed to relish Daugherty’s music as much as the dancers seemed to enjoy moving to it.” (Houston Chronicle)
BIOGRAPHY
GRAMMY Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty first came to international attention when his Metropolis Symphony was performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Zinman, at Carnegie Hall in 1994 and subsequently recorded by Decca/Argo. Since then, Daugherty’s music has entered orchestral, band and chamber music repertoire and made him, according to the League of American Orchestras, one of the ten most-performed American composers of concert music today. His music has received six GRAMMY Awards, including Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2010 for Deus ex Machina for piano and orchestra and in 2016 for Tales of Hemingway for cello and orchestra.
Born in 1954 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Daugherty is the oldest of five brothers, all professional musicians. They grew up in a musical household, with a father who played the drums in dance bands and a mother who sang in musical theater productions. As a young man, Daugherty studied composition with many of the preeminent composers of the 20th century including Jacob Druckman, Earle Brown, Bernard Rands and Roger Reynolds at Yale University (1980-82), Betsy Jolas at the Paris Conservatory and Pierre Boulez at IRCAM in Paris (1979-80), and György Ligeti in Hamburg (1982-84). From 1980-82, Daugherty was also an assistant to jazz arranger Gil Evans in New York.
After teaching from 1986 to 1991 at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio, Daugherty became Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he is a mentor to many of today’s most talented young composers. Daugherty is also a frequent guest of professional orchestras, festivals, universities and conservatories around the world. Daugherty’s music is published by Peermusic Classical/Faber Music, Boosey & Hawkes and since 2010 by Michael Daugherty Music.
NAXOS RELEASES MICHAEL DAUGHERTY’S THIS LAND SINGS: INSPIRED BY THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WOODY GUTHRIE
World-premiere recording features performances by the Albany Symphony’s Dogs of Desire ensemble led by David Alan Miller, and vocal soloists Annika Socolofsky and John Daugherty
“During these times of turbulence and uncertainty, I think back to the songwriter and political activist Woody Guthrie, who traveled across America with his guitar and harmonica to perform songs of hope and social justice during the Great Depression and World War II. As a musical tribute to this Dust Bowl troubadour, I have composed This Land Sings: Inspired by the Life and Times of Woody Guthrie, a song cycle with 17 original vocal and instrumental numbers, like a Grand Ole Opry radio broadcast. It is my hope that this Naxos recording, featuring the Albany Symphony’s new music ensemble Dogs of Desire, will remind us that music can spark greater awareness and bring about meaningful change.”
–Michael Daugherty
Daugherty: This Land Sings review – exuberant polyglot Woody Guthrie celebration, The Guardian
Michael Daugherty: This Land Sings, BBC Music Magazine
Michael Daugherty: This Land Sings (Inspired by the life and times of Woody Guthrie) – Annika Socolofsky; John Daugherty; Dogs of Desire; David Alan Miller, The Whole Note
AllMusic Review of Michael Daugherty: This Land Sings
Explore Classical Music article on This Land Sings
Classical Notes: New releases from Daugherty, Tann, Times Union (Albany)
Michael Daugherty: This Land Sings, Glarean Magazine (German)
RECENT RECORDINGS
Michael Daugherty: Blue Electra; Last Dance at the Surf; To the New World
Naxos/March 2025
Michael Daugherty: This Land Sings Inspired by the Life and Times and Woody Guthrie
Naxos/March 2020
Polaris String Quartet: Flow
Atoll/September 2018
Poetics
Equilibrium/November 2016
The Lightning Fields
MSR Classics/November 2016
Composer’s Collection: Daugherty
GIA Publications/January 2016
On Safari: Mirror Image Goes Wild Orchestra
MSR Classics/October 2015
Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano
ECM/September 2015
