First woman PhD in classical guitar dies at 63
RIPThe classical guitar world is in mourning for Lily Ashfar, an Iranian student of Andres Segovia at USC who was the first woman to breach a closely guarded macho instrument. Lily was 63 and had been ill for some time.
She received her doctorate from Florida State University in the midst of an international career. Her Hemispheres album has iconic status.
Lily is being buried in northern Iran.
Aren’t you forgetting Liona Boyd? She is 74 years old and referred to as “the first lady of the guitar”.
And Sharon Isbin, who is 67. Founder of the guitar department at Juilliard and a Grammy Award winner.
Boyd never formally studied the instrument, as likely there were no guitar programs in Canada at the time.
Also, if we go even further back, contemporaries of Segovia include Ida Presti and Maria Luisa Anido, both whom recorded for major labels like Decca / CBS in the 40’s.
In educational terms, Lily was indeed the first one.
RIP.
I’m sorry to hear this. She was a great guitarist. I have her transcriptions of Valses Poeticos.
I will be playing through those passages in her honor.
‘first woman to breach a closely guarded macho instrument.’ Not sure this is a credible analysis – for example, Ida Presti and Maria Luisa Anido (to name just two) had stellar reputations, and had been treading the boards decades earlier.
Also, there is Luise Walker (1910-1998) who studied for a time with Segovia, and toured many countries as a performer in the early-mid 20th C. She is largely forgotten now but had a very good career in her time. She can be heard on Vol 3 of the “Segovia and his contemporaries” series on Doremi. She was also a long-time teacher in at the Music University in Vienna.
A closely guarded macho instrument? Seriously? Liona Boyd much? Sharon Isbin? Renata Tarrago? Or is that just because the men are playing with something in their lap?