John Christopher Williams AO OBE (born 24 April 1941) is an Australian virtuosic classical guitarist renowned for his ensemble playing as well as his interpretation and promotion of the modern classical guitar repertoire. In 1973, he shared a Grammy Award in the Best Chamber Music Performance category with fellow guitarist Julian Bream for Together (released in the US as Julian and John (Works by Lawes, Carulli, Albéniz, Granados)). Guitar historian Graham Wade has said that "John is perhaps the most technically accomplished guitarist the world has seen."
Early life
John Williams is an only child who was born on 24 April 1941 in Melbourne to an English father, Len Williams, who bought John, at age 4, his first guitar with a modified neck. Len would later found the Spanish Guitar Centre in London. His mother Melaan (née Ah Ket) was the daughter of William Ah Ket, the first Australian barrister of Chinese heritage. In 1952, the family moved to England where he attended Friern Barnet Grammar School, London. Williams was initially taught guitar by his father, who was a musically disciplined and accomplished classical guitarist. From the age of 11, Williams attended summer courses with Andrés Segovia at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. He attended the Royal College of Music in London, from 1956 to 1959, studying piano because the college did not have a guitar section. In 1958 at 17, he made his musical debut performing publicly at London's Wigmore Hall. Upon his college graduation he was invited to create and then to run their guitar department for its first two years of life. Williams maintains links with the college (and also with the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester).
Classical guitarist
Williams' first professional performance was at the Wigmore Hall in London on 6 November 1958. Since then, he has been performing throughout the world and has made regular appearances on radio and TV. He has extended the repertoire by commissioning guitar concertos from composers such as Peter Sculthorpe, Stephen Dodgson, André Previn, Patrick Gowers, Richard Harvey, and Steve Gray. Williams has recorded albums of duets with fellow guitarists Julian Bream and Paco Peña.
Williams is a visiting professor and honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Williams mostly uses Greg Smallman guitars, after using Spanish Fleta during the 1970s.
Thoughts on guitar education and teaching
Williams has expressed his frustration and concern with guitar education and teaching, that it is too one-sided i.e. focusing only on solo playing, instead of giving guitar students a better education including ensemble playing, sight-reading and a focus on phrasing and tone production and variation. Williams notes that "students preoccupied with fingerings and not notes, much less sounds"; some are able "to play difficult solo works from memory", but "have a very poor sense of ensemble or timing". He notes that students play works from the solo repertoire that are often too difficult, so that the teachers often put more "emphasis on getting through the notes rather than playing the real substance of each note". To encourage phrasing, tone production and all-around musicianship, Williams arranges for students to play together in ensembles, choosing works from the existing classical music repertoire, such as the "easier Haydn String Quartets".
Other musical genres
Although Williams is best known as a classical guitarist, he has explored many different musical genres. Between 1978 and 1984 he was a member of the fusion group Sky. He is also a composer and arranger. At the invitation of producer Martin Lewis he created a highly acclaimed classical-rock fusion duet with rock guitarist Pete Townshend of The Who on Townshend's anthemic "Won't Get Fooled Again" for the 1979 Amnesty International benefit show The Secret Policeman's Ball. The duet featured on the resulting album and the film version of the show – bringing Williams to the broader attention of the rock audience.
Williams recorded "Cavatina" by Stanley Myers. The piece originally included only the first few bars but, at Williams' request, it was rewritten for guitar and expanded by Myers. After this transformation it was used for a film, The Walking Stick (1970). In 1973, Cleo Laine wrote lyrics and recorded it as the song "He Was Beautiful" accompanied by Williams. The guitar version became a worldwide hit single when it was used as the theme tune to the Oscar-winning film The Deer Hunter (1978).
Personal life
Williams and his third wife, artist Kathy Panama (whom he married on New Year's Eve 2000), reside in London (Hampstead) and Cornwall. He has a daughter, Kate Williams, who is an established jazz pianist. He also has a son, Charlie, by his second wife, the television presenter Sue Cook.
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