Music Chair David Mancini Interviews Aaron Boyd, Director of Chamber Music

As a passionate advocate for new music, Aaron 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.

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