Guest Artist: Michael Boyd, piano

Steinway Artist Michael Boyd performs works by Mozart, Ravel, and Rachmaninoff.

Dr. Boyd is active as a soloist, collaborative artist, lecturer, teacher and adjudicator. After graduating from the North Carolina School of the Arts under the tutelage of Bela Nagy, he continued at the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts Winter Program in Canada as an invited student/performer. His studies culminated in the Master’s and Doctoral degrees and Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. While at Eastman, he won first prize as pianist in the Kneisel Lieder Competition and played a radio broadcast recital from Carnegie Hall with Naumburg prize-winning violinist Ian Swensen.

As a concerto soloist, Dr. Boyd has performed with the Rochester Philharmonic, the Milwaukee Symphony, the Toledo Symphony, the Dearborn Symphony, and the Eastman Chamber Orchestra. Solo recitals have taken him across the country to California, New York, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio. Most notably, he was invited to perform the original 1838 version of the Liszt Paganini Etudes on the opening concert of the American Liszt Society in San Francisco. In Europe, Dr. Boyd has performed recitals in Austria, Belgium, Greece, and Spain, and recently performed and taught masterclasses in China. His adjudication credits include the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition and the Liszt Garrison Competition at Ohio State University.

Dr. Boyd was named a Distinguished Professor of Piano at the University of Toledo in Ohio in April.  He was also a visiting professor at the Eastman School of Music. During the summer, he has served on the faculty of Indiana University’s Summer Piano Academy as well as the Chautauqua Summer Institution. Dr. Boyd has recorded on the VAI label and Fleur De Son Classics. His recording of the Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring for two pianos with pianist JoelSchoenhals was reviewed by the American Record Guide and Clavier magazine, which stated: “The results are impressive and attest to the musicianship and technical skills of these artists”. A solo recording entitled The Art of the Piano Transcription was recently released and is available on all major streaming platforms. Most recently, he has been inducted into the Steinway and Sons Teacher Hall of fame at a ceremony in New York. Dr. Boyd is a also member of the Bezonian Piano Trio.