Lily Afshar performs "Una Limosna por el Amor de Dios" (An Alm for the Love of God) by Paraguayan Composer Guitarist Agustin Barrios on live TV, April 14, 2006 to promote the next afternoon's concert for the Wichita Guitar Society. Courtesy of KCTU channel 5. http://www.lilyafshar.com Lily Afshar's grandparents were born north of Iran in Azarbaijan and later moved to Tehran where Lily was born. She was 10 years old when she began learning the guitar. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music degree in guitar performance from The Boston Conservatory and the New England Conservatory of Music. At Florida State University, where she studied with Bruce Holzman, Lily became the first woman in the world to gain a Doctorate of Music in guitar performance. She has studied at the Banff Centre for Fine Arts and the Aspen Music Festival with Oscar Ghiglia. She received Diplomas of Merit from the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. She was selected to play for Maestro Andrés Segovia in his master classes held at the University of Southern California. Lily was honored with the 2000 Orville H. Gibson Award for Best Female Classical Guitarist in Los Angeles. Her other performance awards include the Top Prize in the Guitar Foundation of America Competition and Grand Prize in the Aspen Music Festival Guitar Competition, among others. She received the Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship Award in Music and an NEA Recording Award. 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 she was chosen as "Artistic Ambassador" for the United States Information Agency to Africa. Currently, Lily is head of the University of Memphis guitar program where she received the 2000 Board of Visitors Eminent Faculty Award, and was recently awarded the 2008 Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award. Lily regularly conducts guitar master classes in conjunction with her touring. Her recordings of "24 Caprichos de Goya, Op. 195" by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and "A Jug of Wine and Thou" were released on Summit Records. Her latest recordings, "Possession" and "Hemispheres", were released on Archer Records. Her Five Popular Persian Ballads are published by Mel Bay Editions, which also produced her 2008 DVD entitled "Virtuoso Guitar" featuring performances and an interview with Lily.