Daugherty lived in Pendleton for his entire childhood and teenage years, and began studying piano with noted pianist Elizabeth Edmundson at the age of 4.
At the age of 20, Daugherty was appointed an assistant conductor of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra, where he worked and studied under conductor/composer Thomas Bricetti.
He left the University of Cincinnati in late 1979, when he had the unexpected opportunity to begin conducting for American Ballet Theatre prima ballerina Gelsey Kirkland, which eventually resulted in a position with ABT itself.
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".
In addition to their professional partnership, Daugherty and Wong have been life partners since 1989, and were married in San Francisco in 2013, where they have lived for the past 15 years.
Daugherty won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1996 as executive producer of Peter and the Wolf for the ABC Television Network.
Daugherty's first Emmy nomination came in 1987, for Music Direction of the PBS television special of Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus.
He also received two Emmy nominations for Rhythm & Jam, his series of music education specials for the ABC Television Network.