George Daugherty

George Daugherty (born 1955) is an Irish-American conductor, director, producer, and writer.

Daugherty has conducted international ballet companies and most of America's major symphony orchestras, and has continuing guest conducting relationships with the Cleveland Orchestra (with whom he performs both in Severance Hall and at the Blossom Festival), the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic (at both the Hollywood Bowl and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion), the San Francisco Symphony, the National Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony, and the Houston Symphony. He has guest conducted virtually all of Canada's major symphony orchestras, including numerous performances with the Vancouver Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony. Internationally, he has conducted often at the Sydney Opera House, and with such international orchestras as the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra (in London at Royal Festival Hall, and on tour in the UK, US, and Canada), the Sydney Symphony, the Melbourne Symphony, the New Japan Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Kremlin Palace, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra during the inaugural season of the acclaimed new DR Koncerthuset, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas, and The RTÉ Concert Orchestra in the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland. He has guest conducted a number of major choral ensembles, including the Harvard Glee Club, The Westminster Symphonic Choir, The San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and The Westminster Concert Bell Choir. As a ballet and opera conductor, he conducted for the American Ballet Theatre, the Munich State Opera and Ballet, the Teatro Regio Torino, the Teatro Argentina Opera House of Rome, the Teatro Municipale Valli di Reggio Emilia, Mexico's Palacio de Bellas Artes and Teatro Juarez opera houses, Venezuela's Teatro Municipal opera house, as well as for ballet galas all over the world. He was Music Director of the Chicago City Ballet from 1981 to 1983, the Louisville Ballet from 1985 to 1990, and Ballet Chicago from 1987 to 1990. He has collaborated with, and conducted for, a wide range of singers, ranging from Dame Julie Andrews to Etta James. In August, 2012, he was appointed Music Director and Principal Conductor of Ballet San Jose, for whom he will conduct all 2012-2013 performances with Symphony Silicon Valley in the orchestra pit, including new productions of The Nutcracker and full-length Don Quixote, as well as such pieces of mixed repertoire as Sir Frederick Ashton's "Lez Rendez-vous" and "Thais Pas de Deux," and Clark Tippet's "Bruch Violin Concerto."

Since 1990, he has been notable for creating symphony orchestra concerts which combine film and multimedia with classical music, with the goal of bringing new audiences to the genre of symphony orchestra music. His most successful concert in this genre, Bugs Bunny on Broadway, and its 2010 sequel "Bugs Bunny at the Symphony," combines classic Warner Bros. Looney Tunes projected on a large screen accompanied by a live orchestra performing the original score. This production has been touring the world continuously since 1990 and has played to a total international audience of almost two million people. He has also won numerous awards as a producer, director, writer, and composer/music director for film and television, including a Primetime Emmy Award and five Emmy nominations. He has created all of his television and film projects in collaboration with producing partner David Ka Lik Wong. Daugherty currently lives in San Francisco.