Dr. Geoffrey Herd

Violinist Geoffrey Herd leads a varied and impactful career as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician as well as an innovative artistic director and dedicated pedagogue. He has performed throughout the United States, Latin America and Asia at venues such as the Isabel Stewart Gardner Museum of Art in Boston and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall as well as at universities and conservatories globally. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Herd has collaborated with many of the finest musicians of our time including Ani Kavafian, Clive Greensmith, James Dunham, Laurie Smukler, Ettore Causa, and Jinjoo Cho. Mr. Herd has performed concertos with numerous orchestras including the Rochester Philharmonic, the Thailand Philharmonic, the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, the Ithaca College Symphony, the Amherst Symphony, the Finger Lakes Symphony, the University of Tennessee Symphony Orchestra, and the Longmont Symphony.

As an artistic director, Mr. Herd is the founder and director of the Geneva Music Festival, currently celebrating its 10th year anniversary. The festival has been recognized as a leader in innovative programming and promotion of diversity and inclusivity in the arts. By celebrating and highlighting the contributions of African-Americans, Latinos and Women to the field of music, the festival has given recognition to composers and musicians who have often been neglected on the concert stage. The festival gathers many of our nation’s best performers within the realms of classical music and jazz each summer and is regularly supported by the National Endowment for the Arts as well as other competitive granting organizations.

As a pedagogue, Mr. Herd is on faculty at the University of Tennessee where he has built a thriving studio, attracting students from around the globe. His students frequently participate in the nation’s top music festivals including the Aspen, Brevard, Killington, Sarasota, and Wintergreen festivals, have gone on to graduate school at the Yale School of Music and the Cincinnati Conservatory and are frequent competition winners throughout the country.  Mr. Herd has also been on faculty at the Killington Music Festival, is co-director of the Knoxville Suzuki Academy, director of the University of Tennessee String Project and president-elect of the Tennessee Chapter of the American String Teacher Association. Mr. Herd studied at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, the Yale School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music with Ani Kavafian, Paul Kantor, William Preucil and David Updegraff. He plays on a Francesco Rugeri “ex-Ernst” violin made in Cremona in 1673.

Mr. Herd began studying the violin at the age of four as a Suzuki student through Ithaca Talent Education. Early studies were done with Susan Jarvis, Jan Butler, Kirsten Marshall and Linda Case.