There probably isn’t an orchestra in the world that hasn’t played a work by GRAMMY Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty. Known for his ear, his wit and his imagination of how instruments work together, his music is inspired by American idioms, mythologies and icons.

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. As a young man, Daugherty studied composition with many of the preeminent composers of the twentieth 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.

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. In addition to being a frequent guest of professional orchestras, festivals and universities around the globe, Daugherty is also Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance in Ann Arbor, where he is a mentor to many of today’s most talented young composers.