John Williams Oboe			Born in London, John Williams was educated in Southampton where he began studying the oboe with Alec Orton. Further studies with Joseph Craen, one time principal oboe of the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra, and then Terence MacDonagh at the Royal College of Music, led to a varied career during which he has been principal oboe of the City of Birmingham Orchestra, the Northern Sinfonia, and the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra (now the BBC Philharmonic) as well as Professor at the then Royal Manchester College of Music. His chamber music activities have included work with the Wigmore and Nash ensembles and the London Wind Players. His solo recordings for EMI of the Vaughan Williams Oboe Concerto with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and an album of concertos - which includes the Hummel - with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta, have received the highest critical acclaim worldwide. He has also appeared as soloist with many orchestras abroad, including the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Slovak Chamber and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestras and the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra. Active also as a writer, his book, The Essential Oboist, has been greeted as a significant addition to the pedagogic literature of the instrument. John was principal oboe of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for fifteen years until 1982 when he left to take up the post of Professor of Oboe at the Royal Marines School of Music in Deal.