Anthony Glise

Anthony Glise (born January 17, 1956 in St. Joseph, Missouri) is a guitarist, composer and author. He is the only American guitarist who has won first prize in the International Toscanini Competition held in Italy. He is also the only guitarist to be chosen as "Individual Artist of the Year" by the Missouri State Arts Council.

Glise has frequently been cited for his eclectic and creative but highly reclusive tendencies in both his private and professional activities. As of late, one could argue that Glise more often frequents European monasteries and hermitages than concert halls, and his presence - even at the premieres of his own compositions - is increasingly rare.

These reclusive traits have intensified to such an extent that during a meeting at a national guitar conference (Oberlin, US, 2005), Glise was despairingly dubbed by several board members as "The Ghost."

In 2010 he accepted a professorship at the University of Missouri-Columbia ("Mizzou") to launch their first classical guitar program. That program offers degrees in undergraduate through graduate classical guitar as well as a PhD in Music Education.