Boyle was born in the
Sydney suburb of
Woollahra, New South Wales, on June 29, 1886. His father, George E. Boyle, was a teacher of singing and conductor of the
Sydney Choral Society, and his mother, Elizabeth J. "Lizzie" Boyle (died 7 July 1936), a leading Sydney pianist and accompanist. He was taught the piano by his mother and later by Sydney Moss. In 1901, aged 14 or 15, he made a concert tour of New South Wales with
John Lemmone's concert company, later with the Russian pianist
Mark Hambourg He was to recall Busoni as "the greatest single influence to which circumstance or my own design have ever subjected me". In 1909 Boyle played
Chopin's
1st Piano Concerto at
The Proms, under
Henry Wood, an engagement that Busoni had secured for him. Also in 1909, Busoni edited
Franz Liszt's Polonaise No. 2 by replacing the existing ending, which he considered unsatisfactory, with a more fitting brilliant cadenza and coda, and dedicated this edition to George Frederick Boyle. On Busoni's recommendation, he taught at the
Peabody Institute (1910–22), succeeding his Australian countryman
Ernest Hutcheson as head of the piano department when aged only 24. His students included
Aaron Copland,
Alex North,
Samuel Barber and
Elmer Burgess. Boyle died in Philadelphia on June 20, 1948, at the age of 61. ==Compositions==