Guitarist, composer, arranger and musical director Lily Guarneros Maase was born in Corrales, New Mexico and educated at the University of North Texas and California Institute of the Arts. She is the daughter of session guitarist and educator Steve Maase (1946-2016), whose roots in the industry date back to the era of Buddy Holly and the legendary Norman Petty Studios in Clovis, NM.

After nearly fifteen years spent working in New York as a performer, educator and bandleader, the #metoo movement inspired Lily to return to her birthplace in order to speak safely and freely about the challenges of being a freelance female musician in a male-dominated field. Her writing on the subject, “Playing While Female,” went viral to the highest levels of the music industry, was quoted in O Magazine, and has been the subject of multiple panel discussions within the world of jazz and academic music.

Lily is currently serving as faculty in the Guitar department at the Los Angeles College of Music, where she teaches String Theory and applied private lessons. She is the guitarist, primary composer and bandleader with the Suite Unraveling (Tzadik), a member of the Maase/McNalley duo (Infrequent Seams) with Ornette Coleman alum Tom McNalley, the creative director of Handmaid Music and the owner of Guitar Dad Publications, which specializes in theory education materials for non music-readers. She is endorsed by Godin guitars.

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Music, Jazz Studies | University of North Texas
Master of Fine Arts | California Institute of the Arts

SIMILAR FACULTY