Lily Afshar (Persian: لیلی افشار) is an Iranian American classical guitarist.
| Lily Afshar | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Born | Tehran, Iran |
| Genres | Contemporary classical music |
| Occupations | Professional Musician, Professor |
| Instruments | Classical guitar |
| Labels | Summit Records, Archer Records, Mel Bay |
Contents |
She won the 2000 Orville H. Gibson Award for Best Female Classical Guitarist.[1] as well as the Tenth, Eleventh, and the Twelfth Annual "Premier Guitarist" awards by the Memphis Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. Lily was awarded the 2008 Distinguished Teaching Award, the 2000 Eminent Faculty Award, and the 1996 Distinguished Research Award at The University of Memphis.[2] Other awards include the Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship Award in Music, the National Endowment for the Arts Recording Award, Top Prize in the Guitar Foundation of America Competition, Grand Prize in the Aspen Music Festival Guitar Competition, and First Prizes in both the Music Teachers' National Association and the American String Teachers' Association Guitar Competitions.
She was chosen as "Artistic Ambassador" for the United States Information Agency to Africa.[3]
Lily Afshar was among twelve guitarists selected to play for Andrés Segovia in his master classes held at the University of Southern California,[2] at which time Segovia predicted that "she will be a beautiful celebrity". She then appeared in an interview on the NBC Nightly News.
Afshar wrote her doctoral thesis "24 Caprichos de Goya, Op. 195, for guitar by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and their relation to Goya's etchings" [4] at the Florida State University.
Afshar has been praised for her performances.[5][6][7][8]