Aaron Boyd

Violinist Aaron Boyd enjoys a versatile career as soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and teacher. Since beginning the violin at the age of 7, Mr. Boyd has concertized throughout the United States, Europe, Russia and Asia. Having played in nearly every major hall in New York City, Mr. Boyd was also a frequent guest artist at New York’s Bargemusic, where he appeared over 50 times. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Boyd has participated in the Marlboro, La Jolla, Bridgehampton, Prussia Cove and Tanglewood festivals and has collaborated with members of the Juilliard, Guarneri, Orion and Emerson Quartets, the Beaux Arts Trio, Phillippe Entremont, Mitsuko Uchida, Anner Bylsma, Siegfried Palm, Kim Kashkashian, and Gerard Poulet. Mr. Boyd toured and recorded internationally as a member of the Sejong Soloists and Manhattan Sinfonietta, and has played with the St. Paul, Orpheus, Metamorphosen and Prometheus Orchestras. Mr. Boyd has been a prizewinner in numerous competitions including the Ecoles D’art Americaines de Fontainebleau, the Klein Violin Competition, the Tuesday Music Society and the Pittsburgh Concert Society and was awarded a Proclamation by the City of Pittsburgh for his musical accomplishments.

Deeply committed to the music of our time, Mr. Boyd has been involved in numerous commissions and premiers in concert and on record, including premier recordings of the music of Milton Babbitt, George Edwards, and Morton Feldman. Mr. Boyd was first violinist and founder of the Zukofsky Quartet (Quartet-in-Residence, Bargemusic); the only ensemble to have played all of Milton Babbitt’s notoriously difficult string quartets. A musician of wide stylistic interests, Mr. Boyd has 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, Mr. Boyd can be heard on the Naxos, Tzadik, North/South and Innova labels. Mr. Boyd has been broadcast in concert by NPR, WQXR, and WQED, and was recently profiled by Arizona Public Television.

Born in Pittsburgh, Mr. 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 the legendary cellist Harvey Shapiro. Previously on the violin faculty of Columbia University and the University of Arizona, Mr. Boyd now lives in New York with his wife Yuko and daughter Ayu, and plays on the “ex Alard” Matteo Goffriller violin made in Venice in 1700.