Cedar Rapids native gets more Grammy nods

Cedar Rapids native Michael Daugherty's name is on a trio of Grammy nominations, but he's quick to share the honors.

'It's always nice to be recognized for not only the work you've done, but the work of other professionals in the field,” he said by phone from his home composition studio in Ann Arbor, Mich. 'For a composer of concert music, there aren't that many recognitions out there, so this is one of the few that still exists.”

The Grammy ceremony will air at 7 p.m., Feb. 12, on CBS, and Daugherty, his wife and daughter will be in the audience in Los Angeles, just as they were in 2011 when he won three Grammys for the Nashville Symphony's recording of his 'Metropolis Symphony” and 'Deus ex Machina.”

Daugherty, 62, who teaches composition at the University of Michigan, has received the nominations for his album, 'Michael Daugherty: Tales of Hemingway, American Gothic and Once Upon a Castle,” recorded by the Nashville Symphony and released in September. In addition to the title work, the album also includes musical portraits of Eastern Iowa artist Grant Wood, titled 'American Gothic,” and billionaire media tycoon William Randolph Hearst, in 'Once Upon a Castle.”

The Hemingway piece, scored for cello and orchestra, is nominated for Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Best Classical Instrumental Solo.

The album also received a Grammy nod for Best Classical Compendium, honoring all three musical portraits. Each one has a special tie for Daugherty, and two were influenced by his late father, dance-band drummer Willis Daugherty.

Orchestra Iowa commissioned 'American Gothic” for the 2012-13 season, when the ensemble returned to the Paramount Theatre following flood renovations. The piece, composed in memory of Willis Daugherty, debuted May 4, 2013, and returned in this year's September season opener on the Brucemore lawn, in honor of Wood's 125th birthday.

The four-part Hearst castle organ concerto not only reflects Daugherty's favorite drive along the Pacific coastline, but also the time he took his father to see the sprawling estate in San Simeon, Calif., as well as 'Citizen Kane,” the Orson Welles film classic inspired by newspaper publisher Hearst, his career and, in part, his castle.

He created the piece as an organ concerto, because the organ 'is a bigger-than-life, gothic-sounding instrument, which ties in stylistically.” The recording showcases Paul Jacobs, chairman of Juilliard's organ department, who in 2011, became the first organ soloist to win a Grammy Award.

Daugherty, the eldest of five brothers in the music business, was composer-in-residence for the Cedar Rapids Symphony - now Orchestra Iowa - in the 1996-97 season. He joined the music faculty at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1991, and has been hailed by Minnesota Public Radio and others as one of the 10 most-performed living American composers.

A classical orchestral work involves many people, he said, from the musicians and conductor to the producer, engineers and composer.

'It's nice that everybody gets this kind of recognition,” Daugherty said.

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