Album Notes

A native of Tupelo, Mississippi, Michael received his Bachelors of Music and Masters of Music Degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi under the tutelage of Professor John DeChiaro. Among being the recipient of many awards and honors, he garnered top honors in the 1997 Music Teachers National Association "Collegiate Artist" Competition and was chosen to represent Mississippi in a performance at the Music Teachers National Association Regional Convention in Tallahassee, Florida.

Mr. Boyd has attended masterclasses with such renowned artist as Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Marc Regnier, Randy Pile, Pat Kerber, Leo Brouwer and The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet members William Kanengiser, Scott Tennant, Andrew York and John Dearman. Mr. Boyd is currently pursuing a Doctoral Degree in Guitar, and in addition to actively transcribing and arranging works for the guitar as well as other mediums, he also continues studies in composition with Luigi Zaninelli and Dr. John Donohue. Mr. Boyd was appointed co-director of the "Majesty of the Guitar in Spain International Festival", held on the campus of USM in the spring of 2001. Presently he is Professor of Guitar at Jones County Junior College in Ellisville, Mississippi.

Mr. Boyd is a Centaur Records recording artist with The Mississippi Guitar Quartet, a classical guitar ensemble formed in the Spring of 1998 with John DeChiaro, Steve Kennedy and Chas Evans. The quartet has recently been named to the Mississippi Arts Commission Touring Artist and Education Developer Roster. He has also recently formed a new guitar duet with quartet member Steve Kennedy. The Mangore Duo performs compositions written for guitar duet as well as new transcriptions of well known works by the master composers.

As well as his work with Centaur records, Mr. Boyd is featured as Concert Master on the Southern Arts Guitar Consort Recording "Reflections", he was also featured in the debut recording of Samuel Adler's oratorio "Choose Life" on the Albany records label, and was involved with the premier at Lincoln Center's Avery Fischer Hall. His solo recording debut "Recuerdos de la Guitarra" and follow-ups "Modern sounds" and "Divisions" are highly featured on NPR affiliate Public Radio in Mississippi. Look for more recordings by Mr. Boyd to be available soon, as well as his transcriptions of early music and duets for beginning guitar to be available through Mel Bay Publications.