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John Boyd: WFIU's Artist Of The Month for May

Conductor, composer, and arranger John Boyd

WFIU's Featured Artist for the month of May is American educator, conductor, composer and arranger John Boyd.

Spanning parts of six decades, John Boyd has enjoyed an international conducting career that has taken him throughout the United States, Asia and Europe. Boyd earned his Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music degrees from Northwestern University and later received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1981. He studied conducting with John P. Paynter, Bernard Rubenstein, Crawford Gates, and Glenn Block.

For over 21 years, Dr. Boyd served as the Director of Bands and coordinator of the Wind/Percussion Division at Indiana State University, retiring in 2010. Prior to joining the ISU faculty in 1989, he taught at Northern Illinois University, Wichita State University, Kent State University, and the University of Arizona.

An internationally renowned conductor of wind bands, Dr. Boyd has conducted at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Philharmonic Winds of Singapore, the Central Conservatory Wind Orchestra (Beijing), and the PLA Concert Band (Beijing). Between 2006 and 2007, he served as the first full-time conductor of the chamber winds ensemble at Singapore's Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music where he also taught classes in conducting and wind literature.

In 1988, Boyd co-founded the professional wind orchestra Philharmonia à Vent, serving as conductor alongside Frederick Fennell. He has guest conducted The U.S. Army Band, United States Army Field Band, and was a featured conductor at the 9th and 10th WASBE International Conferences.

As a composer and arranger of wind ensemble literature, Boyd has published over 60 works in the catalogs of C. Allen, Ludwig, G. Schirmer, Barnhouse, Cole, Associated Music, and Warner Brothers. He has also released more than 20 recordings featuring his conducting, including two critically-acclaimed albums with the Kent State University Wind Ensemble and the album Capriccio with the Indiana State University Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Faculty Winds.

Between 2005 and 2007, Boyd released three recordings with the Philharmonia à Vent.  His most recent release, Armenian Dances, features Dr. Boyd conducting the Taiwan Wind Ensemble on performances of works by Leonard Bernstein, J.S. Bach, Claude Smith, Dmitry Shostakovich, Chia-Ying Chiang and Alfred Reed.

Dr. Boyd is a member of the American Bandmasters Association, Indiana Bandmasters Association, MENC/IMEA, College Band Directors National Association, National Band Association, WASBE, Phi Kappa Lambda, Phi Beta Mu. He previously served on the board of directors for the Conductors Guild and was Vice President (President Elect) of the Indiana Bandmasters Association.

WFIU will feature performances by John Boyd in our classical music programming throughout the month of May.

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