John Williams Classical Guitar

I'm determined to feature less well known people than John Williams classical guitar player supreme, on this site. But I have two reasons for including him.

It was at a concert in about 1964 held by a classical music society in Doncaster that I first heard John Williams play. As only a novice could (still not much better I'm afraid) I almost gave him a standing ovation after he tuned his guitar! I was only really interested in rock music at the time but that concert was the start of my interest in classical guitar.

The second reason is that I found a great video on YouTube and wanted to use it on the site. You can watch that below.

From Melbourne To London

John Williams was born in Melbourne. The young John was initially taught by his English father, Len. At 12 years old he went to train under Andres Segovia in Italy.

His musical education continued at the Royal College of Music in London where he studied piano. When he graduated he was asked to set up a department for the study of the guitar. He ran this new department for two years. He's kept up his association with the college and also with the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

The Music

Although he's explored many different forms of music it's the classical guitar playing of John Williams that most people know. He's a composer, arranger and has collaborated with Julian Bream and Paco Pena.

His fusion group, Sky, enjoyed huge popularity and was the first rock band to play in Westminster Abbey when it played a benefit concert in 1981 for Amnesty International.

John Williams Classical Guitar - Plays A.Barrios Mangore

John Williams & Julian Bream: C.Debussy-Clair de Lune

Get The Full Story

There's so much written about John Williams that I deliberately kept this short. If you want to read a much fuller biography go to the John Williams classical guitar page on Wikpedia.

Return to Top: John Williams Classical Guitar