He has been charming the audience with his stellar performances wherever he goes, but acclaimed Australian classical guitarist Rupert Boyd almost took the science route after completing high school.
“I began taking general music classes at the age of 8 at my school in Canberra. One day, they asked me if I would like to play an instrument. That very same day my brother came home from high school playing a brand new guitar. I went back to my music teachers the next day and told them that I'd like to play guitar,” recalls Boyd, whose own high school days were spent playing the electric guitar and trying to imitate Jimi Hendrix and other rock legends. “However, in my last two years of high school, I was fascinated by both music and astrophysics, and was seriously contemplating studying either profession. I made the decision to study music after starting guitar lessons with Australia's renowned classical guitarist and pedagogues Timothy Kain.”
After completing his Bachelors in music from the Australian National University School of Music, and masters from the Manhattan School of Music, Boyd did an Artist Diploma from the Yale University School of Music. He won the the Andrés Segovia award from the Manhattan School of Music, the Lillian Fuchs Chamber Music Competition and the Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Competition.
“I'm fascinated with being able to play music from the renaissance through modern day, and I love picking up a piece of paper with small music notation dots on it, and being able to connect with a composer who may have written the work 500 years ago or just last week, and who could have been living in Australia, Germany, or Hawaii,” he states.
Boyd is also a part of the Australian Guitar Duo with Jacob Cordober since 2000 and have given concerts in different parts of the world. He also performs as a duo with his wife cellist Laura Metcalf and enjoys teaching music. “I do own a little ukulele too, on which I play and sing Beatles songs from time to time. But strictly for my own enjoyment. No one would want to hear me sing in public!” he chuckles.
Talking about the classical music scene nowadays, Boyd believes that one of the biggest challenges is the increasing competition for people's time and attention. However, he feels that the audience are more appreciative of a live performance for both the ability to hear the pristine acoustic quality of music played live on stage, and for the shared social experience that attending a concert offers. But at the same time, he agrees that there definitely is a misconception that classical music is a very solemn art form. “In many concerts that I attend, the musicians will speak from the stage and describe to the audience what it is about the work they are going to play that they love, and both this connection and information can make the experience very engaging and enjoyable. Also, in a typical guitar concert, there will be quite a few shorter works played on the programme rather than one or two long pieces. So I think that if anyone has the misconception that a chamber music concert will be a long serious affair, they should check one out and hopefully will be pleasantly surprised,” he says.
For his upcoming performance at Institute Menezes Braganza on October 15, Boyd will be presenting a collection of works that range from a renaissance piece written over 400 years ago for the lute by John Dowland, through to some contemporary works written by the Australian composer Phillip Houghton. In addition he will also be playing a variety of compositions from Scotland, Italy and Spain, to Brazil, Argentina and Hawaii. “Some works will be familiar to audiences of western classical music, while others will be more obscure, but they are all some of my favourite compositions and it will be a pleasure to share them with the audience in Goa,” says Boyd, who although has been to India in 2012, will be performing here for the first time.
Apart from his India tour, Boyd is also planning to record a new solo CD this November which he hopes to release next year. His other projects include recording an album with his wife and doing another CD as the Australian Guitar Duo. “I would also love to travel more and present the classical guitar to as wide an audience as possible,” he says. “With an art form like music, it is always possible to get better and to continue to improve as a musician is a life long dream.”
