Program Notes | Warner Bros. Discovery presents Bugs Bunny at the Symphony

Bugs Bunny is one of the most recognized cartoon characters in the world, whose signature phrase “What’s Up, Doc?” has long since entered the English language.

Bugs’ first “reel” appearance in front of his soon-to-be-adoring public was in A Wild Hare directed by Tex Avery. Since then, Bugs’ zany antics in hundreds of cartoon favorites have made him a legend throughout the world.

This cool, collected, carrot-chomping rabbit is the unequivocal superstar of the Looney Tunes family. With never a “hare” out of place he always manages to outsmart his adversaries, whoever they may be. He’s a real American icon who has graced the TV and cinema screens the world over.

Bugs Bunny’s cartoons have twice been nominated for Academy Awards, and his Knighty Knight Bugs won a coveted Oscar. Bugs has starred in four films in addition to his hundreds of animated shorts and 21 prime time television specials.

Bugs Bunny celebrated his 80th birthday on July 27, 2020. . .exactly 80 years from the premiere of A Wild Hare on July 27, 1940.

Conductor George Daugherty is one of the classical music world's most diverse artists. In addition to his 40-year conducting career which has included appearances with the world’s leading orchestras, ballet  companies, opera houses, and concert artists, Daugherty is also an Emmy Award-winning / five-time Emmy nominated creator whose professional profile includes major credits as a director, writer, and producer for television, film, innovative and unique concerts, and the live theater.

A frequent guest conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, he made his debut there in 2000 and has since conducted the orchestra numerous times at both Verizon Hall at Kimmel Center, and at Mann Music Center, most recently in January 2022, in programs of both film music and classical repertoire. In the summer of 2022, he also conducted The Orchestra at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival. He made his debut with the New York Philharmonic at David Geffen Hall (then Avery Fisher Hall) at Lincoln Center in May 2015 in four sold-out performances and returned there in May 2019 for three more sold-out performances. Since 1993, he has conducted over 20 performances at The Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and an equal number with The National Symphony Orchestra at Wolf Trap. He has guest conducted The Pittsburgh Symphony in numerous engagements at Heinz Hall, most recently in March 2022. He also debuted with The Boston Pops in December 2017 in three sold-out performances and returned to The Pops in December 2019. He debuted with Detroit Symphony in December 2018 and returns there in 2021. In 2023 he will make his debut with the iconic l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, Switzerland. His current and recent conducting schedule includes multiple performances with National Arts Centre Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, Seattle Symphony, San Francisco Symphony (over 30 performances of film concerts and classical repertoire within two decades), Milwaukee Symphony, Utah Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra at both Severance Hall and the Blossom Festival, New Jersey Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic. He has been a frequent guest conductor at the Sydney Opera House since 1996, and in 2002, 2005, 2010, and 2016, he returned to guest conduct the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House, including recording a new CD with the orchestra. In this and recent seasons, he also made debuts and return appearances with the Baltimore Symphony, Houston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Vancouver Symphony, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, West Australia Symphony Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and multiple engagements with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra at both the National Concert Hall, and the new Grand Canal Theatre, both in Dublin, Ireland. He has been a frequent guest conductor at the Bellas Artes Opera House in Mexico City, where he has conducted the Orquesta del Teatro de Bellas Artes in ballet and opera productions. He has also been a frequent conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, with whom he first made his debut in Royal Festival Hall and on tour throughout the UK, and more recently conducted a 15-city US and Canadian concert tour with the orchestra and guest artists Dame Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Charlotte Church, dancers of the Royal Ballet, and the Westminster Choir and Bell Ringers.

Daugherty has also conducted for scores of other major American and international symphony orchestras, ballet companies, and opera houses, including Indianapolis Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Erie Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra, Moscow Symphony, Kremlin Palace Orchestra of the Russian Federation, Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, the Auckland Philharmonia, Adelaide Symphony, the RCA Symphony Orchestra, Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet, Mexico City’s Bellas Artes Opera House, Montreal Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Syracuse Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Delaware Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Tucson Symphony, Saskatoon Symphony, Austin Symphony, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, New Orleans Symphony, Venezuela Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Seoul Prime Philharmonic, and major Italian opera houses in Rome, Florence, Turin, and Reggio Emilia.

During the course of his career, he has also conducted for an extensive and eclectic list of international concert artists, including violinists Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Cho-Liang Lin,  Zachary De Pue, Rachel Lee, Kyung-wha Chung, Eugene Fodor; international opera artists Roberta Peters, Rosalind Elias, Julia Migenes, Jennifer Holloway, Rhys Meirion, Kristin Clayton, Bojan Knezevic, and Grace Bumbry; singer/actors including Dame Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Etta James, Rosemary Clooney, Charlotte Church and Lisa Vroman; narrators ranging from Lloyd Bridges and Buzz Aldrin to Amy Tan, and non-orchestral ensembles ranging from The Harvard Glee Club to The Westminster Choir to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

As a critically-acclaimed ballet conductor, Daugherty has conducted for dozens upon dozens of the greatest ballet stars in the world over the past four decades, ranging from Mikhail Baryshnikov, Rudolf Nureyev, Gelsey Kirkland, Carla Fracci, and Natalia Makarova, to the great stars of today. . .and from all decades in between. He has been on the conducting staffs of American Ballet Theatre, the Bavarian State Opera Ballet, La Scala Ballet, and Teatro Regio di Torino Ballet, was music director of The Louisville Ballet, Ballet Chicago, Chicago City Ballet, Alabama Ballet, and Eglevsky Ballet, and has guest conducted for scores of international companies. In 2016 Daugherty was appointed Music Director of the famed and iconic Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, with whom he made his debut conducting at The Kennedy Center Opera House in March 2017, with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. From 2012 to 2015, he was Music Director of Ballet San Jose, where he conducted nearly 50 performances per season for the company, with Symphony Silicon Valley in the orchestra pit. In summer 2013, he made his debut conducting The Russian National Orchestra at the internationally acclaimed Napa Valley Festival del Sol, presiding over the reconstruction of a long-lost Fokine ballet with music by Rachmaninoff, plus an international ballet gala. He has conducted numerous versions of every full-length ballet, as well as scores of works by countless major choreographers ranging from George Balanchine to Sir Frederick Ashton.

As a director, writer, and producer of music-based television programs, Daugherty has created several major productions for the ABC Television Network project, including a primetime animation-and-live action production of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, which he created, co-wrote, conducted, and directed, and for which he won a Prime Time Emmy Award as producer (in collaboration with producing partner David Ka Lik Wong), as well as numerous other major awards (including an additional Emmy nomination as conductor and music director.) He (and David Ka Lik Wong) also collaborated with The Joy Luck Club author Amy Tan on a television series adaptation of her celebrated children’s book Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat. The Emmy Award-winning 80-episode series debuted on PBS in the fall of 2001 as a daily-animated children's television series, produced in cooperation with Sesame Workshop, PBS Kids, and CineGroupe. Daugherty  executive produced, and also wrote a large number of the animated tales.

Daugherty also received an Emmy nomination for Rhythm & Jam, his ABC television network specials which taught the basics of music to a teenage audience, which he created and produced with Mr. Wong.

In 1998, Daugherty received the biannual Indiana Governor’s Arts Award from the state of his birth, in recognition for his artistic contributions not only in Indiana, but also throughout the rest of the country. In receiving the award, Daugherty joined an exclusive list of previous Hoosier honorees, including composers Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael, conductors Raymond Leppard and John Nelson, cellist Janos Starker, violinists Joshua Bell and Josef Gingold, architect Michael Graves, designer Bill Blass, and novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr. In 2005, he was also named a Sagamore of The Wabash by the late Indiana Governor Frank O’Bannon, the highest award which can be bestowed upon a performing artist from the state governor.

In 2006, Daugherty was also named a Library Laureate of the San Francisco Public Library for his contributions to children’s books, reading, and literature, joining a distinguished list of authors who have been awarded the title. This award was especially meaningful to Daugherty, since his great-great-great-grandfather was the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Daugherty was recently honored to be appointed to the Board of Directors of The Nevada School of The Arts.

In 1990, Daugherty created, directed, and conducted the hit Broadway musical Bugs Bunny On Broadway, a live-orchestra-and-film stage production which sold-out its extended run at New York’s Gershwin Theatre on Broadway, and has since played to critical acclaim and sold-out houses all over the world. The Bugs Bunny symphonic concert tradition continued when Daugherty and producing partner David Ka Lik Wong launched a new version, Bugs Bunny At The Symphony, in 2010, with double World Premieres at the Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Symphony, and the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The next version of the concert, Bugs Bunny at the Symphony II, also created by Daugherty and Wong, premiered in 2013 with world premieres at the Hollywood Bowl/Los Angeles Philharmonic and National Symphony at Wolf Trap. The current concert, marking the 30th Anniversary of this concert franchise, premiered in autumn 2019 with Erie Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and Boston Pops.

Daugherty lived in San Francisco for the past 20 years, and now resides in Las Vegas.

Bugs Bunny at The Symphony Executive Producer David Ka Lik Wong was awarded with a coveted Emmy Award for his work as producer on Peter and the Wolf in 1996, and was also nominated for an Emmy in 1994 for his work as producer of Rhythm & Jam, the ABC series of Saturday morning music education specials for children.

He teamed with George Daugherty as principal producer for the Peter and the Wolf project, the animation and live-action production starring Kirstie Alley, Lloyd Bridges, Sleepless in Seattle’s Ross Malinger, and the new animated characters of legendary animation director Chuck Jones. He also produced the interactive CD-ROM version of the production for Time Warner Interactive.

He was also the senior Producer for the Warner Bros. documentary film The Magical World of Chuck Jones, directed by George Daugherty and starring interviews by Steven Spielberg, Whoopi Goldberg, George Lucas, and Ron Howard, among many others.

He has been Producer for the Warner Bros. touring concert production Bugs Bunny on Broadway since 1991, and Bugs Bunny at the Symphony since 2010, as they have toured the world, and he co-produced the original audio CD album for Warner Bros. Records. Wong has also produced innovative symphony orchestra concerts  for some of the world’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center, The Boston Pops, The National Symphony Orchestra, The Hong Kong Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, the Sydney Opera House, the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic at The Hollywood Bowl, the Wales Millennium Centre, Sinfonia Britannia, and many others. Most recently, he produced critically acclaimed Christmas concerts for Canada’s National Arts Centre, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. He is also Executive Producer and the co-creator of the touring concert Rodgers & Hammerstein on Stage and Screen, playing with such major orchestras as The Hong Kong Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and Fort Worth Symphony.

Wong has teamed with George Daugherty, Amy Tan, and the legendary Sesame Workshop to produce and create the new Emmy Award winning PBS / Sesame Workshop children’s television series Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat, based on the book by Ms. Tan, which premiered on PBS in the fall of 2001, and has since been one of the most highly rated children’s television series on all broadcast networks. Wong also wrote a number of episodes for the series and story-edited all 80 segments.

Wong is also the producer of the new WaterTower Music CD release of Bugs Bunny at The Symphony, recorded at the Sydney Opera House with The Sydney Symphony. In addition to his Emmy Awards and nominations, he has won numerous other awards during his career, including the Grand Award of both the Houston and Chicago International Film Festivals, a Silver Award of the Chicago Film Festival, two Parents’ Choice Awards, and the Kids First Award.

Wong was born in Hong Kong, and moved to San Francisco with his family at the age of 12. He still called San Francisco home until 2020. He currently resides in Las Vegas.

Bugs Bunny at The Symphony principal guest conductor James Fellenbaum enjoys an extraordinarily diverse career as a conductor, equally at home with Symphonic music, Chamber Orchestra, Pops, Ballet, Opera, Choral-Orchestral, and Film with Live Orchestra.

Fellenbaum has conducted the Bugs Bunny at the Symphony concert all over the world, with major international orchestras ranging from Australia’s Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to Canada’s Edmonton Symphony Orchestra to Geneva’s l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romance.

The 2022–2023 season marks his fifth year as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Brevard Philharmonic, NC. Concerts include Classical, Holiday, Pops, and Music in the Schools programs, and have been met with critical and popular acclaim. 
Fellenbaum is the resident conductor of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, now in his 17th season with the organization. He conducts a variety of concerts with the KSO, and has lead the orchestra in a wide array of repertoire, ranging from the complete Brandenburg Concerti to orchestral music from Wagner’s The Ring Cycle. His performances on the Masterworks and Chamber Classics series have garnered such praise as:

“. . .a remarkable performance, one that was clean, focused, and razor-sharp in its control, yet passionate and  warm  in  its  display.” and “one of the most compelling performances of a Beethoven symphony I have yet heard in Knoxville.”

As a frequent conductor on the Knoxville News-Sentinel Pops series, he has collaborated with such renown artists as Kenny G, Chris Botti, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Jim Witter, Ann Hampton Calloway, Steve Lippia, The Indigo Girls, and The Midtown Men, along with tributes to ABBA, Bob Denver, The Beatles, Elvis, as well as the popular Cirque de la Symphonie.

He also excels in Film with Live Orchestra concerts, including recent presentations of The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Mary Poppins. As part of the KSO’s Education and Community Partnership Program, Fellenbaum James conducts performances throughout the city of Knoxville, as well as regional communities in east Tennessee and southwest Virginia. He also conducts the educational programs, including Side-by-Side concerts with local high school orchestra programs, as well the KSO’s annual Young People’s Concerts, which are seen by 10,000 elementary students each year.

Since 2010, Fellenbaum is also the music director of the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Association. The KSYOA consists of 6 orchestras, lead by the Youth Orchestra, which he conducts. In March of 2018, the Youth Orchestra was selected to compete in the National Orchestra Festival in Atlanta, sponsored by the American String Teachers Association, where they won 1st Prize in the Youth Orchestra Division. The Youth Orchestra was also awarded 3rd Prize in The American Prize competition–Youth Orchestra division, for their 2017-2018 season. He has been a guest Music Director of the Symphony of the Mountains Youth Orchestra (TN), and was previously the Music Director of the Suburban Youth Symphony in Illinois. He has conducted the American Youth Philharmonic, Texas Honors Orchestra, and has led many regional and all-state orchestras, as well as hundreds of workshops and clinics.

Fellenbaum is the director of orchestras at the University of Tennessee, a position he has held since 2003. He oversees and conducts the Orchestra Program, which includes the Symphony Orchestra—the most prominent collegiate ensemble in the state—the Chamber Orchestra, founded in 2004, the Contemporary Music Ensemble,  founded in 2006 and dedicated to music written since 1950, and UT Opera Theater, where he oversees orchestral administration, and has conducted past productions such as Don Giovanni, La Traviata, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, The Turn of the Screw, Sweeney Todd, Susannah, Cosi fan tutte, Little Women, and more. Orchestral performances at UT have grown in both size and quality of performances, resulting in invitations to perform in state-wide and regional concerts, and receiving critical acclaim such as:

“With the arrival of James Fellenbaum...the UT Symphony has developed, at an amazing pace, into an ensemble that rivals the professional orchestras in many communities.”

Additionally, the Orchestra Program been chosen for two different PBS recording projects, performing as the classical soundtrack for Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People, narrated by Sissy Spacek, and the upcoming The Truth about Trees.

Fellenbaum has conducted orchestras nationally and internationally, including recent guest conducting engagements with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (Australia), Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (Canada), Amarillo Symphony (TX), Erie Philharmonic (PA), Springfield Symphony Orchestra (MA), Asheville Symphony Orchestra (NC), the Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra (OR), Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra,  the Symphony of the Mountains (TN), the Satu-Mare State Philharmonic and Sinfonia Bucharest Orchestra of Romania, and the Russe Philharmonic and Vidin Philharmonic of Bulgaria. He was invited to the 2006 First International Gennady Rozhdestvensky Conductors Competition, where he was one of 20 conductors chosen to compete out of 112 applicants from 26 countries around the world and finished as a top-five Finalist – the only American to reach that round.

Fellenbaum holds a Bachelor of Music degree in violoncello performance from James Madison University, and a double Masters degree in violoncello performance and orchestral conducting from Northwestern University. His primary conducting teachers were Victor Yampolsky and Cliff Colnot in Chicago, David Zinman and Murry Sidlin at the Aspen Summer Music Festival, and Pinchas Zukerman and Jorma Panula as part of the Conductors Programme with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada.

Producer Amy Minter was born and raised in Pittsburgh and has maintained a residence there for her entire life, as well as in numerous other cities. In 2015, Minter became a partner and producer with the Emmy Award-winning Industrial F/X Productions, producers of Bugs Bunny at the Symphony, and since then has been an integral part of the Bugs Bunny concert team at such major orchestras and venues as The New York Philharmonic at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, The Los Angeles Philharmonic at The Hollywood Bowl, The Sydney Symphony at The Sydney Opera House, The Boston Pops, Philadelphia Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, Chicago Symphony Center, Seattle Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, and many others, as well as with IF/X’s concert production Rodgers & Hammerstein on Stage and Screen with The Hong Kong Philharmonic. Minter has served as executive producer for eight made-for-television films produced by Gemelli Film for domestic and international distribution and is an accredited member of the Cannes Film Festival. A lifetime active supporter and advocate for the arts, Minter serves on the board of directors fo Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo and is an active member of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Ms. Minter has served as a member of the judging panel for the Daytime Emmy Awards.