The prominent Iranian classical guitarist Lily Afshar will have two musical performances on August 5 and 6 at Niavaran Cultural Center in Tehran.
She will play Iranian folk music and classical pieces by famous musicians like Johann Sebastian Bach and Isaac Albeniz, at her classical guitar recital.
One of the world’s leading classical guitar players, Afshar is a master of playing traditional Iranian music by guitar. She is the first woman in the world to be awarded the degree of Doctor of Music in guitar performance, Navayefars.com reported.
Born in Tehran, Afshar, 56, earned her bachelor’s degree in music at the Boston Conservatory, received her master's from the New England Conservatory and later got her doctorate at Florida State University.
Afshar has performed her arrangements of Persian and Azerbaijani pieces by guitar as well as setar, a traditional Persian instrument which evolved over many centuries into the guitar.
In 2000, she won the Orville H. Gibson Award in Los Angeles for Best Female Classical Guitarist.
Her notable awards also include a top prize in the Guitar Foundation of America Competition and Grand Prize in the Aspen Music Festival Guitar Competition, among others.
She is a three-time winner of the annual ‘Premier Guitarist’ awards given by the Memphis Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, and was chosen as an ‘Artistic Ambassador’ to Africa for the United States Information Agency.
Afshar has performed at solo and orchestral concerts in the US, Canada, England, Ireland, France, Italy, Jordan, Australia, New Zealand, her home country Iran, as well as in South America and Africa.
She regularly conducts classes and workshops in conjunction with her concert tours in Iran.
