August 25, 2011 Santa Ynez Vally Journal, CA
Neither the host of accolades utilized by industry notables to describe her talents, nor the list of her accomplishments, quite prepares one for the enchantment Lily Afshar elicits from her guitar. Afshar was brought to the Valley to teach a master class to local students and perform a one-woman concert August 20. Born and raised in Tehran, she is currently the head of the guitar program at the University of Memphis. The classical guitarist was the first woman to earn a doctorate in Guitar Performance. With four CDs under her belt, she was featured on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” for her musical talents and for creating “fretlets,” which allow her to generate the quarter tones so vital to the music of her homeland. When not teaching at the University, Afshar frequently tours – often overseas – performing both concerts and master classes. She has created instructional material in the form of books and videos which can be purchased online. “I just wanted to hear someone amazing,” said 18-year-old Ben Brown. “The Persian ballads were really incredible.” The evening of music offered to the Valley was enjoyed by an almost full house of attendees whose ages spread the gambit from those just old enough to learn to play, to those whose fingers have been robbed of ability by the passage of time. Little ones implored parents to sit close so they could watch the fluid movement of the artist’s hands, then sat spellbound. Eleven-year-old Rachel Staude sat at the edge of her seat, her long hair just catching the ambient light from the stage, eyes transfixed. Not so different, one might guess, than the little girl Lilly who long ago sat watching her cousin’s painful attempt to make her way through a guitar lesson. “I came from a musical family,” says Afshar of her father and sisters, who all played violin or piano,” but nothing grabbed her until Afshar heard the guitar. It was “Sevilla” that stole her heart, but ultimately it was her father’s encouragement that led her to winning it back – his encouragement and her cousin’s painful lesson Afshar watched from afar. “She couldn’t do it,” Afshar said of her cousin’s attempt at the instrument. “I wanted to grab it from her.” Instead, she went home and told her father. The very next day, her father presented her with the same pretty little red guitar her cousin had so struggled with, and a pile of music. “I think she was glad to be rid of it.” Too shy to sing in public, Afshar was drawn to classical music, opting to let the guitar sing instead. She would spend hours practicing. “Lily, come out of your room so we can see you,” she recalls her father pleading. He encouraged her not only to come out of her room, but onto the stage – believing from the outset in her ability to reach an international audience. Sitting on a couch in Solvang’s own Song in My Heart Studio, battling both exhaustion and her eyes’ sensitivity to the Valley’s flora, Afshar looks momentarily away. She smiles. “When I held the guitar in my hand, I wasn’t shy anymore,” she says, explaining her love of performance. “When I could perform, it didn’t matter how many people it was for, as long as I had my guitar.” Afshar also loves teaching, watching her students develop the same love affair with their instruments that she enjoys with her own. But nothing beats performing, she says. “It gives me so much self-confidence that nothing else matters.” For a moment, she grows quite, remembering. She shares the story of her father’s visit. Get me pen and paper, he instructed first, and then to play. “He wrote me a poem about the guitar washing away all his sorrows. He wrote it while I played,” she recalls. Afshar doesn’t normally compose music, her expertise is in arranging. But perhaps, someday, she’ll set her father’s poem to music, she says. “It is absolutely important for parents to encourage their children. I could not have succeeded without my father’s encouragement. He knew me well.” And she knew well the music of her homeland. But last Saturday’s performance spanned the musical greats from across the world, from a Spanish Dance to the music of Mozart and Bach to Persian Ballads, which rounded out the first half. “I’m doing what I can to perform a multicultural program – to bridge the gap between cultures. Music doesn’t know nationality. Music is for everybody,” says Afshar. “It was really good,” says Riley Huffman of both the performance and Afshar’s master class, which he attended earlier in the day. “She’s really artistic.” He had a chance to pick up tips on precision and on identifying which notes in any given interval to emphasize. He brought with him a piece to work on that Afshar is an expert on, and as a consequence, got a lot out of the class. The second half of the performance began with Joaquin Rodrigo’s Invocation and Dance. “The piece is all about magic,” Afshar told the audience. Light and playful, both the music and her fingers danced like rain on a rooftop. Although expected of professionals, she nonetheless has great facility with both her right and left hands, fast and sure. Always highly musical, her tremolo is particularly noteworthy, impressively fluid and even. She is able to bring out great tonal variations by alternating her hand position over the body of the guitar from the bridge on to the neck. Her technique is virtuosic, but it is her musicality and sensitivity, and commitment to the composer’s intentions which really shines through. The fretlets Afshar invented were not used during her performance here. She designed them when she was preparing to perform a piece composed for her with quarter notes that come in rapid succession. Unlike blues guitarists who can bend notes to achieve quartertones, the technique was impossible to utilize, given the rapid fire pace of the piece. Unwilling to abandon any aspect of the music, Afshar simply created a tool to enable her to give the piece its due. It doesn’t seem to matter to Afshar if a body of music was originally intended for the piano or Settar – a traditional Persian instrument, Afshar is able to find a way to play it on her 1992 Thomas Humphrey, which has become very much an extension of herself. “I like to be a pioneer,” she admits. But it is a secondary passion. “There is nothing like performing on stage. I feel more at home there than at my home, but I love to teach, too,” says Afshar, who has taught at the University of Memphis for 21 years. “Sometimes I learn about my own technique as I explain it to children.” What she really enjoys is seeing them get inspired. “That’s really nice.” Afshar has already achieved all goals of her youth, and her little red guitar was (the last time she looked) still in the closet in Iran, but her future both as a performer and teacher remains open for the myriad of possibilities that await her. Afshar’s visit was arranged and sponsored by Song in my Heart Studio with the assistance of Carol and Wymond Echardt, Management Innovations and Arts Outreach. For more information about Afshar and her products, visit lilyafshar.com. by SaraLloyd Truax, Staff Writer
There's a thread of autobiography woven through Lily Afshar's Hemispheres, an album that not only touches repeatedly on the classical guitarist's Persian cultural heritage but also travels the globe almost as far and wide as her musical career has taken her. The ambitiously diverse program offers few familiar touchstones of the guitar repertoire -- composer Leo Brouwer's name is the principal one -- yet not a track goes by without causing the listener to marvel at the beauty of Afshar's tone and her mastery of the instrument's technique. It's no wonder that several of the pieces recorded here were written for Afshar by composers who found her performances inspiring; most of these works receive their world premieres on this album. Among them, Polish composer Gerard Drozd's Triptych and John Schneider's Prelude and Fugato both balance the guitar's lyrical possibilities with passages of intricate finger work, as if precisely to show off the breadth of Afshar's talents. Reza Vali -- born, like Afshar, in Iran -- takes the opportunity to explore the modes of traditional Persian music in his Gozaar (Calligraphy No. 5), asking Afshar to coax unusually evocative harmonies from her instrument, and Garry Eister's Fantasia on a Traditional Persian Song plays with quarter-tone tunings that allude to the distinctive sound of the seh-tar, a guitar-like instrument that Afshar adopts on the following track, Iranian composer Mortez Neydavood's Bird of Dawn. Adding in a variety of other short pieces that further enrich the scintillating palette, Lily Afshar has crafted an album that not only marks her as an artist to watch but also expands the horizons of any guitar aficionado who hears it.
by Scott Paulin, Barnes & Noble
These Hands Belong to the World
from Iranian.com: Sept. 12, 2009 by Ari Siletz Lily Afshar will be one of the performers at the iranian.com music festival in San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts on September 26, 2009. Try mentioning your Iranian background in a circle of cultured American friends. Instead of the usual questions about politics they may ask, “Do you know of Lily Afshar?” This is because Afshar is one of the world’s leading classical guitarists, with remarkable innovations furthering the influence of the instrument. In fact, someone once asked Afshar herself where she was from. That “someone” was Maestro Andres Segovia, the terrifyingly eminent virtuoso authority on the classical guitar. The setting was a master class held in Los Angeles in 1986. A group of 12 young guitarists had been selected out of hundreds of international competitors vying for the honor of playing in front of the guitar legend, hoping for an approving nod. That simple nod or—God forbid—a shake of the head could begin or end a young artist’s career. If a performer could remain intensely focused on her art, keeping her mind and fingers from going rubbery in front of this ultimate say-so on the classical guitar, she was ready to take command of any audience. To showcase her skills, Afshar had chosen to include Sevilla by Isaac Albeniz—it would be futile to pick a less demanding piece, Segovia would spot artistic timidity before the first measure was played out. During a lyrical passage in Sevilla, the Maestro stopped Afshar. “Where are you from,” he asked. Afshar is from a musical family. Her grandmother was a tar player, and her father was a violinist and a pianist (as well as pilot and engineer). Her romance with the classical guitar began at the age of ten when she first heard the instrument at a cousin’s house. The very next day her father got her a guitar and signed her up for private lessons, later enrolling her for night classes at the Tehran Conservatory of Music. Afshar remembers very clearly her father giving her instructions in music theory. He was the one who inspired her to aim for an international reputation. “There was nothing his daughter couldn’t do,” says Afshar. “He encouraged me to get to the top of my field and I ended up getting my doctorate and becoming the first woman in the world [italics mine] to get a doctorate in classical guitar performance.” With this degree of parental love and support, it is no wonder that on first hearing a Segovia recording as a child, Afshar said to herself, “If Segovia can do this, I can too.” Years later in 1986, she would sit in the presence of the great master himself, embracing her guitar; ready to show him that she is just as good. And she wasn’t nervous at all. She thought of Segovia as a grandfather. Family! There is a photo of that event with grandpa Segovia coddling Afshar’s guitar like an infant grandchild. Aptly, Afshar had named her guitar “bambina:” Spanish for little baby girl. The artist, with her dark wavy hair accenting the rural colors of her dress, stands like a proud young mother, while onlookers crane their necks for a view of “bambina.” Four successful guitar albums and a (recent) DVD later, with a Doctor of Music degree form Florida State University, Afshar now leads her own master classes. As she juggles a busy concert schedule with a professorship at the University of Memphis, she makes time to travel the world sharing her musical knowledge with aspiring future guitarists—it helps that she speaks five languages. During these travels she continues to soak up world cultures, heeding her own advice that a good musician must possess “loads of culture,” as it can be critical to music interpretation. Her concerts and master classes in Iran are always packed. “They love the guitar,” she says. “Everywhere I go, Kerman, Mashad, Shiraz, Tehran, there are youngsters coming to hear good music and to learn.” The problem she is attempting to address in Iranian classical guitar education is the lack of good editions of music with proper fingering. So the educator often carries her own editions in her suitcase. A related problem she has noted is that Iranian guitar students tend to borrow their interpretations from recordings, rarely relying on their own ideas. I think this may also have to do with the student trying to stay on the teacher’s good side. After all, this is how Afshar remembers preparing for that master class with Segovia, “...I knew what kind of things Segovia liked and what kind of musicianship he looked for…” While classroom diplomacy is universal, in Iran it can reach debilitating proportions. I have heard many good musicians trained in Iranian conservatories complain of being dinged in grades for breaking tradition. Perhaps breaking tradition is a fine art in itself, and Afshar aims to teach her students the right way to do it. An important lesson in tradition breaking that Afshar teaches the classical guitar world is reflected in her choice of programming. Aren’t classical guitarists supposed to be playing the Bach Chaconne or the Fernando Sor Variations—or at worst a Lennox Berkeley Sonatina? Whoever heard of modifying your instrument with extra frets so that you could mess around with avaz e dashti in dastgah e shur? How dare she ask gifted composers to base their guitar compositions on Morgh e Sahar? Well she dares, and the result is fresh territory for the guitar, or rather a nostalgic return of the guitar to the territory of its birth. Afshar often makes a point of the last syllable in the word “guitar” being of Persian origin and she references physicist Michael Kasha’s works [see footnote] on the true origin of the guitar and other instruments whose names end in “tar.” Instruments as in the se-tar, which she plays. Dr. Afshar has high praise for tar and se-tar virtuoso Hossein Alizadeh and popular se-tar singer Mohsen Namjoo, saying, “[They] are incredibly innovative and they have, each in their own way stretched traditional boundaries.” She also likes Keyvan Saket. “I love his Albinoni Adagio on the tar,” she declares. “It makes me cry. It’s the first time I hear a tar player playing Western pieces. He has incredible technique, but the great thing is that he plays the pieces just like the original and you think it was written for the tar and orchestra.” As Afshar directs her musical energies to Persian instruments, it is highly likely that she will bring upheavals of her own to our classic traditions. Already challenging the standard se-tar techniques she says, “I think, the middle and ring fingers in combination with the index finger could create more arpeggios and strumming techniques than just using the index finger, just like it is done on the guitar.” Alizadeh occasionally does that already, but it took him years to get there. Standing on the shoulders of our tar and se-tar giants, and with the discipline of the classical guitar under her belt, Afshar is launching her se-tar adventures from higher grounds. She used to practice guitar 10 hours a day, and still practices 5 hours a day on top of her rehearsals with other musicians. At one point she had to cancel a concert because she injured a finger through overzealous practice. Her fierce drive keeps me eagerly anticipating what we may hear from her se-tar or Persia-inspired guitar a few years down the line. Another reason for my anticipation is that for the Afshar family, the sky has always been the limit, literally—Lily Afshar’s grandfather helped found Iran Air! He was one of the first Iranians at Columbia University. Her sister went to Harvard. Her father studied at Stanford. Two years ago, in recognition of her international artistic and academic stature, she was invited to perform at the highly regarded Fajr Music Festival in Iran. So she has the connections to hang out in the stratospheres of Iranian culture and contribute ideas to some of the Segovias of Persian music. She may have had in mind her future contribution to our culture when she pondered Segovia’s difficult question, “Where are you from?” The young Afshar answered in the cultural context, “I am Persian.” And the master said to her, “Yes, I can see you have the flamenco spirit and the Persian blood in you,” going on to correctly predict, “She will be a beautiful celebrity.” What would Segovia have said if Afshar had said she was from Iran? That is a question she is in default of answering for History. What she has answered for Iran, however, can be seen in the hundreds who throng her in Vahdat Hall or other concert venues in Iran asking for autographs, or just to shake hands. The fans are so excited after hearing her that sometimes they press her hand too enthusiastically, making it necessary for her to wear a protective glove after concerts. So when you go backstage to congratulate her after the Iranian.com Music Festival, don’t press her hand too hard. Those hands belong to Iran, in fact they belong to the world. Note: See Guitar Review #30 pages 2-12, 1968 for the original Michael Kasha article.  May 16, 2009
Lily Afshar - Virtuoso Guitar DVDfrom Classical Guitar Magazine: May 2009 by Steve Marsh Born in Tehran, Lily Afshar began playing the guitar when she was 10 years old and during her illustrious career has received many commendations and awards including first prize in the Guitar Foundation of America Competition, and three-time winner of the Annual ‘Premier Guitarist’ awards given by the Memphis Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. She was also chosen “Artistic Ambassador” for the United States Information Agency to Africa and is currently head of the University of Memphis guitar section. After the opening track, Carlo Domeniconi’s possibly greatest hit for the classical guitar, “Koyunbaba”, one has the notion that Afshar seems born to perform music of this nature, so innate is her presentation of this masterwork (which comes complete with her own mini-cadenza in the finale). Carrying on with music from the Middle East, Afshar plays “Kara Toprak (Black Earth)” by the Turkish songwriter Asik Veysel, followed by her own arrangements of five Persian ballads and finally “Gozaar” by Iranian composer Reza Vali. Some of these compositions require quarter tones and for the particular notes Afshar has had small ‘fretlets’ glued onto the fingerboard of her Thomas Humphrey guitar. The remainder of the programme contains music from Italy, Spain and South America, hence we have “Misionera” by Bustamente, “Un Dia de Noviembre” by Brouwer, “Andaluza” by Granados and three of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s “24 Caprichos de Goya” (Afshar has recorded the complete series on a separate CD). During the entire programme Lily Afshar performs cleanly, precisely and authoritatively with a beautiful tone and technical virtuosity. This is playing of the highest order and her genuine respect for the music shines through every piece. The sound and picture quality throughout is exceptional…this is, by all standards, a remarkable performance by a player whose technical assuredness, judiciously shrewd musicality and charismatic personality makes this disc an absolute must for all guitarists to have in their collection. The disc concludes with an interview with Afshar in which she talks about her life and career, influences and her guitar. The DVD also has an attractive photograph gallery beginning from when she was seven years old.
MORE REVIEWS "...stunning virtuosity. Without any doubt, Afshar ranks in the top among today's classically trained guitarists...", Deseret Morning News, February 23, 2008. Click here to see the review. "...a delicious blend of Eastern and Western flavors.", Salt Lake Tribune, February 23, 2008. Click here to see the review. "...striking...further proof that there's more to the world of classical guitar writing than the usual Spanish suspects...", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 28, 2008. Click here to see the review. "...an exotic mix...She plays music by composers most of us have never heard of and creates sounds that hearken back to Sheherezade and the Arabian Nights...", Minnesota Public Radio, January 2008. Click here to see the review and listen to the audio feature. "...classical guitarist Lily Afshar strikes the best balance yet between heritage and innovation on this new album...", American Record Guide, September/October 2007. Click here to see the review. "...draws together the seemingly disparate spheres of classical guitar and world music...An endlessly rewarding release from one of the 21st century guitar's most individual and creative figures...", Classical Guitar Magazine, February 2007. Click here to see the review. "Lily Afshar is a Guitar Goddess...", One Way Magazine, August/September 2006. Click here to see the review. "Exotic...superbly crafted repertoire." Classicalsource, 2006. Click here to see the review. "Afshar’s playing is amazing:...", Peoria Journal Star, 2006. Click here to see the review. "The first thing that struck me was the glorious, warm and deep sound that Lily Afshar can produce with her guitar...", UHF Magazine, 2006. Click here to see the review. "Lily Afshar has brought us a multicolored recital, a richly inventive journey through diverse musical landscapes...", Fanfare Magazine, 2006. Click here to see the review. "...a fascinating collection of classical guitar pieces drawing on a wide variety of world music traditions...", CD Hotlist, 2006. Click here to see the review "Tehran-born Lily Afshar is a whoosh of fresh air in the sometimes fusty classical guitar world...", UTNE Reader 2006. Click here to see the review
"Lily Afshar's Guitar recital at the Wigmore Hall on 18 March...", Musical Opinion, 2005 2Click here to see the review "Afshar's classical guitar casts a beautiful spell..." Cincinnati Enquirer, 2004 2Click here to see the review "Afshar's performance is stunning; bringing the music to life with captivating emotional breadth." 2Guitar Review, 2003 "...Apollonian refinement..." The Guitar Foundation of America Soundboard, 2002 "...A guitarist of the highest order..." Classical Guitar, England, 2002 "...a refreshing recording...the music is evocative and the performances passionate...", Guitarra Magazine, 2002. Click here to see the review.
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