The Toledo Trio
December 3, 2004
Pianist Michael Boyd is active as a soloist, collaborative artist, lecturer, and teacher. After receiving his high school diploma from the North Carolina School of the Arts as a student of Bela Nagy, he earned an undergraduate degree from the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. Mr. Boyd's studies continued at the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts in Canada as an invited student-performer. While at the Banff Centre he was asked to participate in chamber music performances with visiting international artists. Mr. Boyd's studies culminated in a Masters and Doctoral degree from the Eastman School of Music. At Eastman, he was teaching assistant to Rebecca Penneys and served as studio pianist for soprano Jan DeGaetani and violinist Donald Weilerstein. He won first prize as pianist in the the Kneisel Lieder Competition and played a radio broadcast recital from Carnegie Hall with Naumburg prize winning violinist Ian Swensen while still a student Mr. Boyd graduated from Eastman with that institution's highest honor, the Performer's Certificate.
As a concerto soloist, Mr. Boyd has performed with the Rochester Philharmonic, the Milwaukee symphony, and the Eastman Kilbourn Chamber Orchestra. His lecture recitals on topics such as Spanish Piano Music and the Art of the Keyboard Transcription have taken him across the country. He recently appeared in concert at the San Francisco Conservatory as chamber musician and a soloist in an all Ravel concert.
Mr. Boyd is Professor of piano at the University of Toledo where he is the pianist for the Toledo Trio. He was also a visiting professor at the Eastman School of Music. During the summer, he has been on the faculty of the Indiana University's Summer Piano Academy and is currently on the piano faculty at the Chautauqua Summer Institution. At Chautauqua, Mr. Boyd teaches an international class of piano students, performs lecture recitals, teaches master classes in keyboard performance practices, and conducts a class devoted to great pianists.
Violinist Rico McNeela is Director of Orchestral Studies and the conductor of the University of Toledo Symphony Orchestra. In addition to his conducting duties, he is the violinist in the Toledo Trio and teaches studio violin and viola. He came to the University of Toledo in the fall of 2002 from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville where he taught for 18 years.
He studied at the Cleveland Institute with David Cerone and Linda Sharon, and also at the University of Michigan with Paul Makanowitzky and Eugene Bossart.
He has performed extensively throughout the United States as conductor, and in solo and chamber music. He has performed in The Hot Springs Music Festival, the Arkansas Music festival, the Allegheny Music Festival. He has been concertmaster of The North Arkansas Symphony, The Fort Smith Symphony, the Kalamazoo Symphony, and the Canary International Opera Festival.
In addition to the University of Arkansas, Mr. McNeela has also taught at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington IL, and at Allegheny College, in Meadville PA.
Cellist Amy Chang Simon, the Associate Principal Cello of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, is also a member of the Toledo Trio and faculty at the University of Toledo. She received her Bachelor and Masters Degree in Cello Performance from the Eastman School of Music.
A native of Taiwan, Ms. Chang Simon was the Principal Cellist of the Taipei Symphonietta as well as well as instructor of Soo-Chow and Dong-Hai Universities. During her tenure, she regularly performed solos, chamber music, concerti throughout Taiwan and Japan. In the United States, besides for winning the first prize of the Saint Paul Musical Arts Cello Competition, she has toured extensively in the United States and Canada as a soloist with the In-Qi Orchestra, including Avery Fisher Hall. She also was featured in recordings of Gordon Chin's "String Compositions" and "Live at the Peristyle" with jazz pianist Claude Black.
Her former instructors include Paul Katz, Zara Nelsova, Robert Sylvester, Alan Harris and Steven Kates.
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