Blair Boyd

Blair Boyd is an American composer whose highly energized compositions engage with physical movement and the perception of time. Her works have been performed throughout the U.S. and internationally, including Cheltenham Music Festival (U.K.), impuls Festival (Austria), and HighScore New Music Festival (Italy), as well as broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

Recent commissions include O Spirit of the Living God for SSAB chorus for Mars Hill Presbyterian Church in celebration of its bicentennial. Her piece for trumpet and vibraphone Shapes and Echos was commissioned in 2022 by Kenken Gorder and is featured on his upcoming NüToots album. In 2020 Boyd composed Shadows through the Lattice for pianist Slade Trammel to commemorate the centennial of the 19th Amendment and her family's historical connection to guaranteeing women’s right to vote. In the same year, Boyd provided the score for a production of Hamlet in her hometown in Tennessee, marking her first foray into incidental music.

Boyd holds degrees from the University of Tennessee (BMus), the University of Bristol (MA), and recently completed her doctoral studies at Cardiff University under the supervision of Prof. Arlene Sierra. As a 2019-2020 Britten-Pears Young Artist, she developed a new work for the Aldeburgh Festival (U.K.) under the guidance of Colin Matthews and Mark-Anthony Turnage. In 2018 her string quartet Juncture was selected for presentation in masterclass with Helmut Lachenmann. She has also studied with Judith Weir and Kenneth Hesketh on summer festival courses.

As a strong advocate of music by women, Boyd co-directed Illuminate Women’s Music, a touring concert series that presents forgotten historical works alongside new commissions from 2017-2022. In 2023 she was a semi-finalist for Ravinia's Breaking Barriers Festival Call for Scores, receiving mentorship from Augusta Read Thomas and Clarice Assad.