A native of Boone, North Carolina, Taylor grew up in a musical family (bluegrass and Broadway, primarily). He spent his early years living a dual life as both a sought-after triple threat in regional musical theater and an Anglican boy treble, traveling across the US and England in performances and residencies. During his high school years at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, hours spent in the music library brought the outlines of his future professional life into steadily sharpening focus for him. This led to a Howard Hanson scholarship at the Eastman School of Music, where he was also a recipient of the Ornest Award and winner of Eastman’s concerto competition. Under the guidance there of Paul O’Dette, Taylor was drawn to the study of performance practice and baroque music. Upon graduation, he went on to attain three advanced degrees and numerous awards from the Yale School of Music, where his scholarship focused on the performance practice of shape-note music (a uniquely American genre of folk hymnody). Completing his studies at Yale, he moved to Paris as a recipient of the Harriet Hale Wooley Fellowship.