George Daugherty conductor and creator

Conductor George Daugherty is one of the classical music world's most diverse artists. In addition to his 25-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.

His current and recent conducting schedule includes multiple performances with The Cleveland Orchestra at both Severance Hall and the Blossom Festival, his 14th return engagement with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, his seventh engagement with The Philadelphia Orchestra, his tenth return to the National Symphony and Wolf Trap, and his fifteenth engagement with the San Francisco Symphony, as well as appearances with dozens of other orchestras in the U.S. and abroad. He has been a frequent guest conductor at the Sydney Opera House since 1996, and in both 2002 and 2005, he returned to guest conduct the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House. He returns to the SSO in 2010 at the Opera House, as well as performances with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra at the Adelaide Festival Theatre. During the 2009-10 season, he has also made, or will make, his debuts with the Baltimore Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, West Australia Symphony Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland.

He is Music Director and Conductor of London's new orchestra Sinfonia Britannia, which made its world premiere at Easter 2005 during a one-week engagement at the new Wales Millennium Centre, its London West End debut in 2006, and its U.S. debut in San Francisco also in 2006. He has also been a frequent conductor of London's Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, with whom he first made his debut in Royal Festival Hall, and most recently conducted a 15-city U.S. and Canadian concert tour with the orchestra and guest artists Dame Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Charlotte Church, dancers of the Royal Ballet, and the Westminster Choir and Bell Ringers.

Daugherty has also conducted for scores of major American and international symphony orchestras, ballet companies, and opera houses, including numerous performances with the Houston Symphony, Seattle Symphony, American Ballet Theatre, Munich State Opera Orchestra, Munich State Opera Ballet, Fort Worth Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra, Moscow Symphony, Kremlin Palace Orchestra of the Russian Federation, Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, the Auckland Philharmonia, the RCA Symphony Orchestra, Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet, Mexico City's Bellas Artes Opera House, Montreal Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Syracuse Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Delaware Symphony, Tucson Symphony, New Orleans Symphony, Venezuela Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and major Italian opera houses in Rome, Florence, Turin, and Regio Emilia.

As a director, writer, and producer of music-based television programs, Daugherty has created several major productions for the ABC Television Network project, including a primetime animation-and-live action production of 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 numerous other major awards.

He also collaborated with The Joy Luck Club author Amy Tan on a television series adaptation of her celebrated children's book Sagwa, 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. Daugherty executive produced, and also wrote a large number of the animated tales.

Daugherty also received an Emmy nomination for Rhythm & Jam, his ABC television network specials which taught the basics of music to a teenage audience.

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. The Bugs Bunny symphonic concert tradition continues when Daugherty and producing partner David Lik Wong launch a new version, "Bugs Bunny At The Symphony," in 2010, with double World Premieres at the Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Symphony, and the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Daugherty is also the executive producer, conductor, and creator of the touring concert Rodgers & Hammerstein on Stage and Screen.

Daugherty recently received the biannual Indiana Governor's Arts Award from the state of his birth, in recognition for his artistic contributions not only in Indiana, but also throughout the rest of the America. In receiving the award, Daugherty joined an exclusive list of previous Hoosier honorees, including composers Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael, conductors Raymond Leppard and John Nelson, violinists Joshua Bell and Josef Gingold, cellist Janos Starker, architect Michael Graves, designer Bill Blass, and novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr. In 2005, he was also named a Sagamore of the Wabash by the late Indiana Governor Frank O'Bannon, the highest award which can be bestowed upon a performing artist from the state governor. He was also named an Honorable Kentucky Colonel for his contributions to the arts of that state.

In 2006, Daugherty was also named a Library Laureate of the San Francisco Public Library for his contributions to children's books, reading, and literature, joining a distinguished list of authors who have been awarded the title. This award was especially meaningful to Daugherty, since his great-great-great-great-grandfather was the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Daugherty has lived in San Francisco for the past 12 years.

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