In 1984 he won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, which led to his New York City recital debut at Carnegie Hall.
Boyd was one of the founding members of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (COE), and served as its principal oboist from 1981 to 2002.
[4] He conducted several recordings with the Manchester Camerata for the Avie label, including music of Beethoven, Mozart[5] and Mahler.
[7] Outside of the UK, in April 2008, the Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur announced the appointment of Boyd as its principal conductor, as of the 2009–2010 season.
[9] Boyd has conducted the Winterthur orchestra in commercial recordings of music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,[10] Felix Mendelssohn and Josef Rheinberger.