On this day · 77 years ago · 1949
77 Years Ago Today: Liona Boyd, the 'First Lady of the Guitar,' Was Born
She studied under the man the classical guitar world calls its king, then got a note of encouragement from him after her Carnegie Hall debut. Liona Boyd, later dubbed the 'First Lady of the Guitar,' was born July 11, 1949.
By Segovia, Classical / nylon-string desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Liona Boyd, the Canadian classical guitarist known as the 'First Lady of the Guitar,' was born July 11, 1949, in London, England, and grew up in Toronto. She studied under teachers including Julian Bream and Andrés Segovia, made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1975, and went on to record 26 studio albums, collaborating with musicians from Chet Atkins to Eric Clapton to David Gilmour. She's a Member and Officer of the Order of Canada.
A guitar with a Spanish pedigree
Liona Maria Carolynne Boyd was born July 11, 1949, in London, England, and grew up in Toronto after her family emigrated to Canada. Per Wikipedia's account of her life, her father grew up in Bilbao, Spain, and her grandmother came from Linares, Spain, the birthplace of Andrés Segovia, the guitarist widely regarded as the founder of the modern classical guitar tradition. At 13, Boyd was given her first guitar as a Christmas present, one her parents had actually bought in Spain seven years earlier. She studied under a run of major names in classical guitar: Eli Kassner, Narciso Yepes, Alirio Díaz, Julian Bream, and, eventually, Segovia himself.
Carnegie Hall, and a note from Segovia
Boyd earned a Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto in 1972, graduating with honours, then spent two more years studying privately with Alexandre Lagoya in Paris. She released her debut album, The Guitar, in 1974 on Boot Records, and the following year made her debut at Carnegie Hall in New York. Segovia, her own teacher, sent her a note afterward.
Segovia's note to Boyd following her 1975 Carnegie Hall debut.
Through your beauty and talent you will conquer the public, philharmonic or not.
Classical guitarist, writing to his former student
Becoming the 'First Lady of the Guitar'
Boyd used the nickname "First Lady of the Guitar" as an album title as early as 1978, and it stuck: North American newspapers were still calling her that through the 1980s and into the early 1990s. Between 1978 and 1984 alone she released nine albums internationally on CBS Masterworks. As of 2018, per Wikipedia's account, her catalog had grown to 26 studio albums, a live recording from Tokyo, over 25 music videos, and several compilation records, with three platinum and four gold certifications in Canada. She recorded and performed across genre lines with an unusually wide range of collaborators: Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, Al Di Meola, Rik Emmett, David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, Steve Morse, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma among them. She was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1982 and an Officer in 2021.
A diagnosis that forced her to reinvent her playing
Not every chapter was a straight line up. After releasing Camino Latino in 2002, Boyd was diagnosed with musician's focal dystonia, a neurological condition that disrupts fine motor control in trained, repetitive movements, a career-threatening injury for any working guitarist. Rather than stop, she adapted, per Wikipedia's account, building out her songwriting and singing and shifting toward less technically demanding guitar arrangements. She kept releasing music and performing, and the recognition kept coming years after the diagnosis: a Diamond Jubilee Award in 2013, a JoAnn Falletta competition Lifetime Achievement honor in 2018, and a National Guitar Museum Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.
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