Boyd Tinsley
Boyd was raised in a very musical family. His father was the director of a choir and his uncle was a bass/trumpet player. Boyd grew up in the same neighborhood as future band mates Carter and Leroi. Boyd wasn't really into music or being a music player when he was young. He accidentally signed up for violin in a middle school Orchestra class thinking he would be taught how to play the guitar. Boyd's interest in the violin was enough to make him stick with it.
As a teenager, he played a part in forming the Charlottesville-Albemarle Youth Orchestra, in which future band mate and bassist Stefan Lessard was a member. He studied under Isidor Saslav, concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Boyd began listening to music other than Orchesta, like musicians who performed rock, blues, and jazz.
While he attended the University of Virgina he regularly participated in Jam Sessions. In the early 1990s he formed the Boyd Tinsley Band, which lasted only a couple of years. In 1991 Dave Matthews asked him to play violin on the song, Tripping Billies with his band for their demo tape. Boyd, after playing a few more shows, eventually joined the band, abandoning the Boyd Tinsley Band, and has been with them ever since. In 2003, Boyd released a solo album, True Reflections, featuring the title track he had written over a decade earlier, that he had performed with the Dave Matthews Band.
Boyd has a side career where he does commercials for brands like Twix, JanSport, and Tommy Hilfiger. Boyd is married and has two children with his wife, Emily: a daughter, Abagail (born 1996) and a son, Noah (born 1999). Boyd is an enthusiastic tennis fan. He has his own tournament, held annually in Charlottesville, Virginia. He often attends the Championships at Wimbledon, and in 2007 played doubles with John McEnroe and Pete Sampras. He has recorded a song called "The Ghosts of Wimbledon" for the 2006 ESPN coverage of the tournament. Boyd sponsors the Boyd Tinsley Tennis Program in Charlottesville.