Memphis Symphony presents music from around the world
Guitarist Lily Afshar joins the Memphis Symphony Orchestra in performing pieces from around the world at the Paul and Linnea Bert Chamber Concert series Friday March 2.
The concert begins at 8 p.m. at the Buckman Performing and Fine Arts Center, 60 Perkins Extended in east Memphis.
Afshar was born in Tehran, Iran and holds degrees in Guitar Performance from the Boston Conservatory of Music, the New England Conservatory, and Florida State University. In 2000 she was honored with the Orville H. Gibson Award for Best Female Classical Guitarist. She has studied at the Banff Centre for Fine Arts and the Aspen Music Festival and School. She received the Diplomas of Merit from the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. She currently chairs the guitar program at The University of Memphis.
Her latest recordings “Possession” in 2002 and “Hemispheres” in 2006 feature a combined total of eight world premieres. “Hemispheres” reached #7 on Billboard’s Top Classical Albums Chart in 2006. Her recordings brought her more attention and she was featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered” last year.
Afshar will solo during Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Guitar Concerto No.1. The composer wrote this piece after meeting the famous Spanish guitarist, Andrés Segovia. This concerto earned Tedesco a reputation as one of the foremost composers for the guitar of the twentieth century.
Other works in this “Around the World” concert include such music as Milhaud’s “La Création du Monde”-- based on African mythology—the tango rhythms of Piazzolla’s “Tangazo,” and Ginastera’s “Variaciones Concertantes” inspired by Argentine folk music.