Artistic Director of Garsington Opera since 2012, Douglas Boyd has previously held positions as Music Director of L’Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Chief Conductor of the Musikkollegium Winterthur, Music Director of Manchester Camerata, Principal Guest Conductor of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Partner of St Paul Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of City of London Sinfonia. In 2020 he received the highly prestigious Grand Vermeil Médaille de la Ville de Paris for services to music, in recognition of his work as Music Director of L’Orchestre de Chambre de Paris. 

Boyd began his professional career as an oboist and became a founding member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. During his twenty-one years as principal oboist with the COE, he often performed under Claudio Abbado and Nikolaus Harnoncourt and was inspired by the intensity and profound vision of their music-making. Douglas Boyd has a broad portfolio of guest conducting engagements with, among others, the Philharmonia, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich and the Budapest Festival Orchestra.