At the age of 22, Australian classical guitarist Rupert Boyd left Australia for the first time, bound for New York City with just a suitcase and a guitar, and not knowing a single person in North America. He has subsequently become regarded as one of the finest guitarists of his generation, having been described by Gramophone as “a very fine musician” and by The Washington Post as “truly evocative”, and has performed across four continents, from New York’s Carnegie Hall, to festivals in Europe, China, India, Nepal, the Philippines, New Zealand and Australia.

Recent concert highlights include performances for the Moab Music Festival, Newport Music Festival, Caramoor, Strathmore, Festival Napa Valley, the Austin and Cleveland Classical Guitar Societies, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was also recently named New Artist of the Month in Musical America for his work as a performer and curator.

Active as both a soloist and chamber musician, Rupert Boyd regularly performs throughout the world in Boyd Meets Girl, with cellist Laura Metcalf, and the Australian Guitar Duo with guitarist Jacob Cordover. Boyd Meets Girl’s debut album reached #3 on the Billboard charts, has to date received over 5 million streams on Spotify, and received the following review in Gramophone Magazine: “they play like one, with a harmony of purpose as sure as their intonation.” Their follow-up album, Songs of Love & Despair, released in 2022 was also praised by Gramophone as “beguiling… fascinating… enchanting”. In 2024, Boyd Meets Girl gave the world premiere performances of ANAHATA, a cello and guitar double concerto composed by the Grammy-nominated Clarice Assad, and commissioned for the duo by the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. The Australian Guitar Duo’s debut album Songs from the Forest was described as “wonderfully entertaining” by Classical Guitar Magazine.

Rupert Boyd also has three solo albums, with his most recent, The Guitar, being described as “an utterly exceptional recording” by Classical Guitar Magazine, and “a must-have album of 2019” by This Is Classical Guitar. Fantasías was selected by American Record Guide as “Critic’s Choice” of 2016, and Soundboard described the eponymous work on Boyd’s debut recording Valses Poéticos as “one of the best recorded performances of this work on guitar.” Rupert Boyd also recorded music for an episode of the wildly popular podcast Radiolab.

Rupert Boyd holds a Bachelor of Music (First Class Honours) from the Australian National University School of Music, a Master of Music from the Manhattan School of Music and an Artist Diploma from the Yale University School of Music. His major teachers have been Timothy Kain, David Leisner and Benjamin Verdery. In addition to winning the Andrés Segovia award from the Manhattan School of Music, Rupert Boyd was also a winner of the Lillian Fuchs Chamber Music Competition and winner of the Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Competition.

Rupert Boyd exclusively plays on D’Addario Strings, and lives in New York City, where he is co-artistic director of GatherNYC, a revolutionary Sunday morning concert series at the Museum of Arts and Design.