Paul Boyd
Director of the Conservatory of Music
Professor of Music, Piano
DR. PAUL BOYD, Director of the Conservatory of Music, was previously Chair of the Fine Arts Department and Director of Piano Studies at College of the Mainland in the Houston area. He was also President of the Faculty Senate during 2012-14. Many of his students now enjoy successful careers in performance, composition, music education, and arts leadership. He served as President of the Houston Area Suzuki Piano Association from 1999-2001 and President of Houston Music Teachers Association 2006-2008. Last year, he joined the board of Pan American Musical Art Research (PAMAR), which hosts Latin American Cultural Week in New York City. As a grant writer, his portfolio has long surpassed $1,000,000.
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Dr. Boyd leads the Foundation for Modern Music (FMM), a nonprofit concert presenter, as Artistic and Executive Director. FMM advocates for today’s composers with emphasis on diverse cultural representation engaging multiple disciplines, and devotes funds to equity in youth access to music programs. Annual audiences have grown during his tenure from under 200 to over 10,000 - with as many as 2,500 at a single classical concert. Under his direction since 2008, FMM’s annual Avalon International Competition for Composers has grown to be a signature event, attracting entrants from around the world and engaging judges of renown such as William Bolcom, Carlisle Floyd, and Tania León. An avid supporter of new music, he has to date premiered over 50 works by Ofer Ben-Amots, Mark Buller, Mohammed Fairouz, Arthur Gottschalk, John Kiefer, Walter Steffens, Christopher Theofanidis, Mary Carol Warwick, and others – in addition to his own compositions. Besides FMM concerts, he has been heard regularly with Houston Symphony musicians’ chamber group the Greenbriar Consortium, Latin music and dance organization Flamárt, and in broadcasts on stations KUHA/KUHF (PBS), KPFT (Pacifica), and KTMD (Telemundo).
Piano studies were with Anne Dean Turk, Carol Houston, Ruth Tomfohrde, and Abbey Simon; composition with David Ashley White. Dr. Boyd taught on the piano faculty of the American Festival for the Arts Conservatory from 2012-20. Performance highlights include the premiere of Warwick’s song cycle The Gathering at New York’s LaMama Theatre Center with baritone Anthony Turner, the gallery installation of his work Water Sketches written for an exhibit of Mona Marshall’s art in San Antonio, a recording of the Steffens chamber opera Two Cells in Sevilla, and a sold-out engagement of The Gathering at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in August 2019.
In a review of a Fairouz concerto premiere and FMM concert, critic Joel Luks of Culture Map claimed: “Boyd’s muscly reading punished whomever or whatever stood in his way… The Foundation for Modern Music’s event was an involved intervention on the city’s classical music scene.” For creating programs with impactful messages such as a multicultural dance show, honoring women composers, and an anti-bullying arts festival, Paul was named a Cultural Ambassador by the City of Houston in 2013 and received mayoral proclamations in 2015 and 2019.