Liona Boyd

Billed by promoters as the "First Lady of the Guitar," Liona Boyd has fully lived up to that accolade. Since the early '80s, she has been one of the most popular classical guitarists; she has also recorded vocal music in the crossover and pop realms after a diagnosis of focal dystonia. Born in London on July 11, 1949, Boyd spent the latter half of her childhood in Toronto. She began studying guitar at age 13 with Eli Kassner in Toronto and later with Narciso Yepes, Andrés Segovia (whose birthplace, Linares, Spain, was also home to Boyd's paternal grandmother), and with her ea...