Michael Boyd, D.M.A.

Photo of Michael Boyd
Professor of Music and Music Program Coordinator
412-365-1201
Laughlin Music Center - 104

Hometown: Bel Air, MD
Joined Chatham: August 2008

ACADEMIC AREAS OF INTEREST

Experimental music and improvisation; indeterminacy; creativity; site-specific, installation, and environmental art; sketch studies and analysis of post-1945 music; popular music analysis and criticism

PERSONAL AREAS OF INTEREST

; ; hiking; vegan cooking; yoga
Website:  

BIOGRAPHY

Michael Boyd is a composer, scholar, and experimental improviser who holds graduate degrees from the University of Maryland (DMA, composition) and SUNY Stony Brook (MA, music theory and history). His music has been performed throughout the United States and abroad in a variety of large and small venues. Boyd has published articles in Notes, Tempo, and Perspectives of New Music as well as reviews in American Music, Computer Music Journal and Popular Music and Society. He previously taught at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, the University of Maryland, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Towson University, Frederick Community College, and SUNY Stony Brook. re County, Towson University, Frederick Community College, and SUNY Stony Brook.

Artistic statement: I believe that every individual possesses significant innate creativity, but, for various reasons, rarely access this valuable personal resource. As a composer, one of my foremost concerns is countering this societal trend by helping individuals connect with and use their inner creativity. One way in which I address this issue is by (re)integrating performers into the creative portion of the music making process through graphic notation which immediately sheds many conventions of Western art music including the primacy of pitch and a roughly one-to-one correspondence between score input and sonic output. In addition to enabling non-specialists and musicians with lesser technical facility to offer viable or “accurate” performances, graphic scores provide greater creative agency to performers essentially resulting in an equal partnership between composer and performer(s). This configuration, paired with my interest in other experimental practices such as the incorporation of visual and theatrical elements, performance-based installation, live electronics and performance art, confronts many musical conventions and thus engages audience members in new ways, often presenting an experience that is both engaging and challenging.ence members in new ways, often presenting an experience that is both engaging and challenging.

EDUCATION
  • D.M.A. Music Composition, University of Maryland (College Park, MD), 2006
  • M.A. Music Theory and History, SUNY Stony Brook (Stony Brook, NY), 2004
  • B.M. Music Composition, University of Maryland (College Park, MD), 2000
  • B.S. Music Education, University of Maryland (College Park, MD), 2000
AWARDS 
  • Foundation for Emerging Technologies and Arts FETA Prize in Sound Art, 2016
  • Tempus Continuum Ensemble Call for Scores Winner (Bob’s Party), 2013
  • The Fifth Floor Collective Call for Scores Winner (Bob’s Party), 2013
  • Bike Pittsburgh 2011 Advocate of the Year.
  • Jacob K. Goldhaber Travel Grant, University of Maryland Graduate School, Spring 2006.
  • University of Maryland Theory/Composition Graduate Travel Grant, Spring 2006.
  • Davis Award for Excellence in Graduate Scholarship, University of Maryland, Spring 2004.
ORGANIZATIONS
  • The American Musicological Society Allegheny Chapter
ACHIEVEMENTS
  • Recordings of compositions:
  • invasion/symbiosis (III), SEAMUS Electroacoustic Miniatures 2012: Re-Caged, 2013.
  • Selected performances of recent compositions:
  • I wouldn’t eat the strawberries… for instrumental and/or vocal trio (2015): Discoveries: Hear and Be Heard, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Merit School of Music, Chicago, IL, 3/9/16; Red Note Ensemble Noisy Nights, Summerhall, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2/1/16; Versipel New Music: Versipel on the Edge, The Blue Nile Balcony Room, New Orleans, LA, 1/19/16
  • Becoming…again for one or more performers (2014): /rhythmos duo, Wild Goose Creative,Columbus, OH, 2/25/17; 2017 Florida International Toy Piano Festival, St. Petersburg, FL, 1/6/17; Up to the Minute, Kamraton, Pittsburgh, PA, 6/2/16; New Music for Strings - Roger Zahab and Friends, Chatham University, Pittsburgh, PA, 3/26/16; Denton McCabe, Teatro Paraguas, Santa Fe, NM, 5/7/15
  • Bob's Party for vocal and/or instrumental quartet (2013): MUSICA CON VISTA International Exhibition, Cluster Musica Contemporanea, Lucca, Italy, 3/26-5/10/16; UNK New Music Ensemble Spring Concert, University of Nebraska at Kearney, Kearney, NE, 4/16/15; UNK New Music Festival, University of Nebraska at Kearney, Kearney, NE, 3/9/15; University of South Florida New-Music Festival, Tampa, FL, 2/14/14; Tempus Continuum Ensemble, The Cell, New York, NY, 10/17/13; The Fifth Floor Collective – “Mitosis,” The Davis Square Theater, Sommerville, MA, 6/4/13.
  • invasion/symbiosis (II) for (optional) trombone and electro-acoustic sound (2012): Ear to the Earth 100 x John, 2012.
  • invasion/symbiosis for trombone and electro-acoustic sound: Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States National Conference, University of Miami, Miami, FL, 1/20-22/11; Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Silver Spring, MD, 10/16/10.
  • Reconstruction for solo performer with found object and live electronics (2009): Electroacoustic Barn Dance, Mary Washington University, Fredericksburg, VA, 10/27/11; Studio 300 Digital Art and Music Festival, Transylvania University, Lexington, KY, 9/16/11; Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States National Conference, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN, 4/9-10/10; American University, Washington DC, 1/20/10
  • Twelve Actions for solo performer (2009): Voicing Cage: By Cage and Inspired By Cage, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA, 11/30/12; The Avant-Garde Lounge, The Goat Farm, Atlanta, GA, 10/27/12; Voicing Cage: By Cage and Inspired By Cage, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA, 10/21/12; New Media Monday, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN, 3/2/09; Studio Z, St. Paul, MN, 3/1/09; Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore, MD, 2/13/09; Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, 9/29/08; Art Enables Benefit Concert, Washington DC, 5/3/08; Faculty Recital, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, 4/27/08.
  • Assemblage for solo performer with found objects and live electronics (2007): Abandoned Store, Swissvale, PA, 8/3/15; Playfest, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, 3/14/15; Child of Tree: Afternoon of Voice and Percussion, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA, 2/16/14; Society of Composers, Inc. Region V Conference, Clarke College, Dubuque, IA, 10/10/09; Society of Composers Inc. National Conference (solo performer), College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM, 4/2/09; New Media Monday (solo performer), St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN, 3/2/09; Studio Z (solo performer), St. Paul, MN, 3/1/09; Art Enables Benefit Concert, Washington DC, 5/3/08; Faculty Recital, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, 4/27/08.
  • Bit of nostalgia… for one or two percussionists and live electronics performer (2005-06): Juventas New Music Ensemble, Boston Conservatory and First Church in Boston, Boston, MA, 9/18-19/09; Society of Composers Inc. Region II Conference (computer performer), Queens College, Queens, NY, 11/17/07; Electronic Music Midwest (computer performer), Kansas City, MO, 10/12/07; Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States 2007 National Conference, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 3/9/07.
  • Bathroom 1900 – a collaborative, site-specific work with three dancers (2006): University of Maryland (sonic/visual performer), College Park, MD, 3/1-2/06.
  • Becoming…everything else – an installation for three or more performers (2004): “Danger: New Music” Festival, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, 5/15/05; University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 5/1-7/05.
  • Hand Leg Suit for mixed instrumental ensemble (2003): Society of Composers, Inc. Region V Conference, Clarke College, Dubuque, IA, 10/10/09; Bang on a Can Marathon (trombonist), Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, College Park, MD, 3/29/09; American Composers Forum New Music Salon (trombonist), Sitar Center for the Arts, Washington DC, 7/13/07; College Music Society National Conference (trombonist), Atlanta, GA, 9/28/08; Appalachian State University (trombonist), Boone, NC, 9/29/08; Society for Composers, Inc. Region VI Conference, University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, MO, 2/8/07.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
  • “Weird Al Yankovic,” Grove Dictionary of American Music 2nd ed., 2013, 606.
  • “American Composers Alliance (entry update),” Grove Dictionary of American Music 2nd ed., 2013, 98.
  • “Jackson Mac Low (entry update),” Grove Dictionary of American Music 2nd ed., 2013, 321-22.
  • “Robert Erickson (minor entry update),” Grove Dictionary of American Music 2nd ed., 2013, 157.
  • “The Evolution of Form in the Music of Roger Reynolds (II),” Tempo: A Quarterly Review of Modern Music, April 2012 (66:260): 34-49.
  • “The Roger Reynolds Collection at the Library of Congress,” Notes: The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association, March 2008 (64:3): 435-57.
  • “Event Review: SEAMUS 2007,” American Music 25:4 (Winter 2007): 521-23.
  • “Book Review: Cybersounds: Essays on Virtual Music Culture, ed. Michael Ayers,” Popular Music and Society 30:2 (May 2007): 289-92.
  • “Book Review: A Rock Reader, ed. Richard King,” Popular Music and Society 30:1 (February 2007): 117-19.
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
  • "The Evolution of Form in the Music of Roger Reynolds," American Musicological Society Allegheny Chapter Meeting, Kent State University, Kent, OH, 4/9/11.
  • "Formal Discomfort: The Afghan Whigs' 'My Curse,'" American Musicological Society Allegheny Chapter Meeting, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 4/24/10.
  • “Impetus Influenced Form: Roger Reynolds's The Palace (Voicespace IV),” American Musicological Society Allegheny Chapter, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 10/25/08.
  • “The Roger Reynolds Collection at the Library of Congress: Overview and Application,” Society for American Music and Music Library Association Joint Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, 3/1/07.
  • “Tracing the Evolution: Connecting the Music of Arnold Schoenberg to 19th-century Compositional Practice through Schenkerian Analysis,” American Musicological Society Capital Chapter, American University, Washington, DC, 9/30/06.
  • “The Music and Library of Congress Collection of Roger Reynolds,” Society of Composers Inc. Region VII Conference, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 4/3/06.
  • “Merging the Hallway and Classroom: My Predilection for The Afghan Whigs’ ‘My Curse,’” American Musicological Society Capitol Chapter, George Washington University, Washington, DC, 10/1/05.