Grammy Winning Guitarist John Williams To Perform 3/29

Often hailed as one of the greatest musicians to ever play the guitar, Grammy Award-winning artist and Edison Award recipient, guitarist John Williams, brings his vast repertoire of musical talent to University Auditorium on Sunday, March 29 at 2 p.m. for a performance that will leave audience goers spellbound.

Born in Melbourne, Australia, John Williams is regarded as a foremost ambassador of the guitar. He was taught by his father and later attended summer courses with Segovia at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, and the Royal College of Music in London. By the early 1960s he had performed in London, Paris, Madrid, Japan, Russia and the U.S.; he has since toured the world playing both solo and with orchestra, and regularly on radio and television.

Amongst his collaborations with other musicians, those with Julian Bream, Itzhak Perlman, André Previn, Cleo Laine and John Dankworth are particularly important. His other musical activities have included the groups SKY, John Williams and Friends, Attacca, collaborations with The National Youth Jazz Orchestra with Paul Hart, Paco Peña, the Chilean group Inti-Illimani, Richard Harvey and jazz guitarist John Etheridge, with whom he teamed up for a highly successful duo tour in the U.K. and U.S. in 2006-07. The duo's program, titled Places Between, was also recorded by SONY BMG live in Dublin and released in the fall of 2006.

John Williams maintains a wide-ranging interest in contemporary music. Examples have included his recording of music by the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu with the London Sinfonietta, an album featuring the music of Peter Sculthorpe and Nigel Westlake called From Australia and his CD of music by the Cuban composer Leo Brouwer, called The Black Decameron, which includes Brouwer's Fourth Concerto. His many other recordings include Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez,Vivaldi Concertos, The Great Paraguayan, John Williams plays the Movies, The Guitarist (which includes his own AeolianSuite with string orchestra) the Arpeggione sonata by Schubert, and Concerto, Op. 30 by Giuliani with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, in which he plays an 1814 Guadagnini guitar. He has championed the concertos of Steve Gray and of Richard Harvey, with whom he toured recently with music from China, Southeast Asia, Africa, Madagascar, Latin America and Ireland, along with music by Handel and Piazzolla.

The highly successful Profile and The Seville Concert, both directed by David Thomas for London Weekend Television's South Bank Show, are particular examples of John Williams' enthusiasm for communicating music on television.

In 2001 Sony Classical released his CD entitled The Magic Box in which his group John Williams and Friends presented adaptations of African music. This includes music from Senegal, Cameroon, Zaire, South Africa, Madagascar and Cape Verde. Since its release, the group has toured the U.K., United States, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, Spain and Italy. Sony also released a solo CD recently entitled El Diablo Suelto, a collection of Venezuelan music by composers including Figueredo, Sojo, Lauro, Fernandez and Gutierrez.

His highly anticipated return solo recital tour in North America in March 2009 includes New York's Carnegie Hall, Chicago, Philadelphia, Toronto and Puerto Rico, as well as the Universities of Princeton, Florida, Michigan and Clayton State.

John Williams plays often for films, such as The Deerhunter (Cavatina) and A Fish Called Wanda, and also plays tennis (badly), badminton (average), chess (quite good), table tennis (better) and likes talking (about anything). He lives in London.

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