A native Mississippi, Michael Degrees in guitar from the University of Southern Mississippi. under the tutelage of Professor John DeChiaro. While there, in the 1996 at the Mississippi convention of the National Federation of Music Clubs, Mr. Boyd received first place in the guitar division and second place overall in the strings division competition. In 1997, he garnered top honors in the Music Teachers National Association "Collegiate Artist" Competition and was chosen to represent Mississippi in a performance at the Music Teachers National Association Regional Convention in Tallahassee, Florida. Mr. Boyd has attended master classes with such renowned artist as Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Marc Regnier, Randy Pile, Pat Kerber, Leo Brouwer and The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet members William Kanengiser, Scott Tennant, Andrew York and John Dearman. Mr. Boyd was appointed co-director of the "Majesty of the Guitar in Spain International Festival," held on the campus of USM in the spring of 2001. He is also a founding member The Mississippi Guitar Quartet, and the Mangore Duo with quartet member Steve Kennedy. Mr. Boyd is featured as Concert Master on the Southern Arts Guitar Consort Recording "Reflections," he was also featured in the debut recording of Samuel Adler's oratorio "Choose Life" on the Consonance record label, and his solo recording debut "Recuerdos de la Guitarra" is highly featured on NPR affiliate Public Radio Stations. Look for more recordings by Mr. Boyd to be available soon, as well as his transcriptions of early music for beginning guitar to be available through Mel Bay Publications.