In 1993, Michael Daugherty completed Metropolis Symphony, an ode to Superman and the comic books of the 1950s and ’60s that the Iowa native had avidly read as a child. At the time, audiences were often leery of new music, and that connection to pop culture helped make them more willing to give it a try. And what they discovered was a compositional departure that was both fun and musically sophisticated.

When famed conductor Mariss Jansons, then music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, wanted to honor his two resident conductors there, he asked Daugherty to write a work that they could lead together. While there are a few other pieces with similar structures, Daugherty took a highly distinctive approach to this challenge. The result was Time Machine for three conductors and orchestra. “It was one of the hardest pieces I’ve had to write, without question,” he said.