Home / Composers / John Boyd

JOHN BOYD (b. 1944)

John Boyd, considered to be one of the most dynamic wind conductors in the country today, is equally at home with educational and professional organizations. He has guest conducted The U.S. Army Band twice, conducted/lectured at the Royal Northern College of Music at Manchester, UK, and the 9th WASBE International Conference. He has also conducted at state and regional CBDNA and MENC performances, the Western Collegiate Wind Festival, Fresno, in addition to receiving invitations to appear at three National Music Educators Conferences. Boyd has recorded two critically-acclaimed albums with the Kent State University Wind Ensemble which was recently released on ELF as John Boyd Conducts American. In 1995, he released, to rave reviews, the compact disc Capriccio with the Indiana State University Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Faculty Winds. Three additional compact discs were released: Tapestries and Wind Songs, featuring the ISU Faculty Winds, and Symphonic Moments, featuring the ISU Symphonic Wind Ensemble. As an active arranger and composer of all forms of wind ensemble music, he has published works in the catalogs of Ludwig, G. Schirmer, Barnhouse, Cole, and Associated Music. Boyd is now working with Frederick Fennell in a new sonic adventure for the ELF label in which they will record wind band repertoire with the Philharmonia a Vent, a professional wind orchestra. Recent reviews of cd releases in the American Record Guide and Fanfare have described Boyd's conducting "... phrases are well articulated and finely etched." The performance has a "keen sense of ensemble as well as fine intonation. Sound is rich and clean, with the expected bite in the brass." "The conducting is all authoritative, vigorous, and evokes playing that is spirited and expressive."

Dr. Boyd is Director of Bands, professor of music, and Coordinator of the Wind/Percussion Division at Indiana State University. He received a Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music degrees from Northwestern University and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Dr. Boyd did advanced study in conducting with John Paynter, Bernard Rubenstein, and Crawford Gates. Prior to joining the Indiana State University faculty in 1989, Dr. Boyd taught at Northern Illinois University, Wichita State University, Kent State University, and the University of Arizona.

D.M.A. University of Missouri Kansas City; M.M. Northwestern; B.M.E. Northwestern University.

Website: http://www.indstate.edu/music/faculty/boyd.html

WORKS

Wind Ensemble
Military Music of Beethoven, The