Lily Afshar on NPR

National Public Radio's Robert Siegel talks with guitarist Lily Afshar about her new CD, Hemispheres (Archer Records), and the role Persian music plays in it. Born and raised in Tehran, Iran, Afshar began her guitar studies at the age of 10. Following Iran's Islamic revolution, she enrolled in the Boston Conservatory where she received her bachelor's degree in music. She subsequently earned a Masters in music from the New England Conservatory of Music and later became the first woman in the world to receive a Doctorate of Music in guitar performance (Florida State University). She is currently the head of the Guitar Program at the University of Memphis. In the NPR interview, Afshar discusses the use of quarter tones, an important element of Persian music, and the three methods she used on Hemispheres to achieve them - adding frets to her guitar, tuning the open strings up or down a quarter step, and bending the strings in a manner similar to playing the blues. Interview.