Aaron Boyd

Violinist Aaron Boyd has established an international career as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral leader, recording artist, lecturer and educator. Since making his New York recital debut in 1998, Boyd has appeared at the most prestigious venues throughout the United States, Europe, Russia and Asia and has collaborated with members of the Juilliard, Guarneri, Orion, Tokyo and Emerson Quartets, the Beaux Arts Trio, Phillippe Entremont, Mitsuko Uchida, Anner Bylsma, Lynn Harrell, Cho-Liang Lin, Wu Han and David Finckel.

As a chamber musician, Boyd has appeared at the Marlboro, La Jolla, Rockport, Aspen and Music@Menlo festivals and is a season artist of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. As a member of the Escher String Quartet for five seasons, Boyd was a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Martin E. Segal prize from Lincoln Center. A prizewinner in the Ecoles D’art Americaines de Fontainebleau, the Tuesday Musical Society and the Pittsburgh Concert Society competitions, Boyd was awarded a proclamation by the City of Pittsburgh for his musical accomplishments.

Vitally interested in the violin and its history, Boyd is in demand as a lecturer on the golden age violinists and their violins. A contributing writer to The Strad magazine, Boyd has also participated in the Oberlin Acoustics Workshop and the critically acclaimed “Strad3D” project.

As a passionate advocate for new music, Boyd has been involved in numerous commissions and premieres in concert and on record, and has worked directly with such legendary composers as Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter and Charles Wuorinen. Boyd was a founder of the Zukofsky Quartet; the first quartet-in-residence at Bargemusic and the only ensemble to have played all of Milton Babbitt's notoriously difficult string quartets in concert. A musician of diverse stylistic interests, Boyd has also played and recorded in collaboration with jazz legend Dick Hyman, chanteuse Badomi DeCesare, and appeared in concert on the mandolin with flutist Paula Robison. As a recording artist, Boyd can be heard on the BIS, Music@Menlo Live, Naxos, Tzadik, North/South and Innova labels. Boyd has been broadcast in concert by PBS, NPR, WQXR and WQED, and was profiled by Arizona Public Television.

Born in Pittsburgh, Boyd began his studies with Samuel LaRocca and Eugene Phillips and graduated from The Juilliard School where he studied with Sally Thomas and coached extensively with Paul Zukofsky and cellist Harvey Shapiro. Formerly on the violin faculties of Columbia University and the University of Arizona, Boyd now serves as director of chamber music and professor of practice in violin at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University. Boyd makes his home in Dallas, Texas, with his wife Yuko, daughter Ayu and son Yuki.

Boyd performs on the “ex Stopak” Matteo Goffriller violin, crafted in Venice, 1700.