Born January 17, 1956 in St. Joseph, Missouri, Anthony is a guitarist, composer, and author. He is the only American to win first prize at the International Toscanini Competition (Italy). He is also the only guitarist to be chosen as “Individual Artist of the Year” by the Missouri State Arts Council.
He has founded and directed music festivals in the US and Europe, recorded over a dozen CD’s and DVD’s, and has published over 90 original compositions and editions including his books, Classical Guitar Pedagogy, and The Guitar in History and Performance Practice from 1400 to Today. Both of these texts are required in virtually every university and music school in the world.
In 2010 Anthony accepted a professorship at the University of Missouri-Columbia to launch their first classical guitar department which is currently one of the largest guitar programs in the US.
Anthony continues to compose, write, concertize, and teach in the US and Europe and lives part-time in St. Joseph and part-time in his adopted village of Sainghin-en-Mélantois, France, where (in his own words) “…we have 800 people, 900 cows, one café, and the newest church in the region… built in 1562.”