Multiple Grammy Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty has achieved international recognition as one of the ten most performed American composers of concert music, according to the League of American Orchestras. His orchestral music, recorded by Naxos over the last two decades, has received six GRAMMY Awards, including Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2011 for Deus ex Machina for piano and orchestra and in 2017 for Tales of Hemingway for cello and orchestra. Current commissions for 2020 include new orchestral works for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Omaha Symphony and a concerto for violinist Anne Akiko Meyers who will give the world premiere with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center in 2021. This residency will feature Daugherty’s 2016 song cycle, This Land Sings, a composition for two singers and chamber ensemble the composer wrote as a tribute to the American singer-songwriter and political activist Woody Guthrie. In This Land Sings, Daugherty divides the composition into 17 numbers, the overture of which recalls Guthrie’s iconic folksong “This Land is Your Land.” Other numbers reference themes such as workers’ rights, suffrage, and the Dust Bowl.
Dress Rehearsal: This Land Sings, Inspired by the Life and Times of Woody Guthrie
April 21, 2024 | 7-9 pm | Windgate Center Concert Hall
Presentation/Discussion: The Chamber Music of Michael Dougherty
April 22, 2024 | 1:40-2:30 | Snow Fine Arts Recital Hall
Pre-Concert Panel Discussion: This Land Sings: Inspired by the Life and Times of Woody Guthrie
April 23, 2024 | 6:15 pm | Windgate Center Choral Rehearsal Hall
Public Concert: This Land Sings, Inspired by the Life and Times of Woody Guthrie
April 23, 2024 | 7:30 pm | Windgate Center Concert Hall
Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band Concert featuring the music of Michael Daugherty, with post-concert Q&A
April 24, 2024 | 7:30 pm | Windgate Center Concert Hall