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UFO by Michael Daugherty
based on the infamous Roswell U.F.O. incident
Michael Daugherty has limited availability for in-person visits and offers the following:
“ I was absolutely delighted by the expert and inspired performance of my ‘UFO’ concerto by up-and-coming percussionist Peter Ferry, one of the most promising and committed soloists of his generation. His inventive navigation of the musical score and boldly conceived interpretation of the optional theatrical cues left an unforgettable impression. I enthusiastically encourage my colleagues in the field to reach out to him, and hope that rousing future renditions of UFO can take place in Ferry’s capable hands."
-Michael Daugherty
Orchestra: 2.picc.2.corA.1.Ebcl.bcl.2.dbn-4.4.3.1-strings
Symphonic band: 4.picc.2.corA.4.Ebcl.bcl.2.dbn-ssax.asax.tsax.barsax-4.4.2.1Btrbn.2.3euph-0.0.0.1
Flexibility on which movements are performed. Combinations include:
V (drums) ........................................................................................................8’
II (xylophone) and V (drums) ........................................................................ 13’
I (transition), III (vibraphone), V (drums)........................................................25’
I (transition), II (xylophone), III (vibraphone), IV (transition), V (drums) ..... 40’
Programming pairings include:
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Holst’s The Planets (in arrangement for symphonic band)
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Iconic works by Michael Daugherty, such as Bells for Stokowski and Niagara Falls
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Suites from Star Wars, including Williams's The Force Awakens
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Space-inspired works: Mother Earth (Maslanka), Jupiter Hymn (de Mey), The Spheres (Gjeilo)
Michael Daugherty
Grammy® award winning composer Michael Daugherty is one of the most commissioned, performed, and recorded composers on the American concert music scene today. His music is rich with cultural allusions and bears the stamp of classic modernism, with colliding tonalities and blocks of sound; at the same time, his melodies can be eloquent and stirring. Daugherty has been hailed by The Times (London) as “a master icon maker” with a “maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear.”
Daugherty first came to international attention when the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Zinman, performed his Metropolis Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 1994. Since that time, Daugherty’s music has entered the orchestral, band and chamber music repertory and made him, according to the League of American Orchestras, one of the ten most performed living American composers.
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. He studied music composition at the University of North Texas (1972- 76), the Manhattan School of Music (1976-78), and computer music at Pierre Boulez’s IRCAM in Paris (1979-80). In 1991, Daugherty joined the School of Music at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), where he is Professor of Composition and a mentor to many of today’s most talented young composers.
Daugherty has been Composer-in-Residence with, among others, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1999-2003), Colorado Symphony Orchestra (2001-02), Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music (2001- 04, 2006-08, 2011, 2014), Eugene Symphony (2006), New Century Chamber Orchestra (2014), and Albany Symphony (2015).
Bands who have commissioned Daugherty include the University of Miami (Coral Gables), University of Michigan, Michigan State University, San Diego State University and University of Texas. Orchestras who have commissioned Daugherty include the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra (London), Nashville Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Conductors who have directed world premieres of Daugherty’s orchestral music include Marin Alsop, Neal Gittleman, Giancarlo Guerrero, David Kawaka, Mariss Jansons, Neemi Järvi, David Alan Miller, Leonard Slatkin, Carl St.Clair, Markus Stenz, Michael Tilson Thomas, Hugh Wolff and David Zinman.
Daugherty has received numerous awards, distinctions, and fellowships for his music, including the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award (1989), the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1991), fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1992) and the Guggenheim Foundation (1996), and the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (2000). Daugherty’s GRAMMY® award winning recordings can be heard on Albany, Argo, Delos, Equilibrium, Klavier, Naxos and Nonesuch labels.