“You have to be very versatile in Australia as a musician. You can’t afford to put all your eggs in the soloist basket because you’ll starve if you do, or at the least get bored. That forces you into something that turns out to be really quite a virtue and that is having to play together with other people in ensembles. And that has tremendous benefits.”
Australian guitarist Timothy Kain celebrated his 70th birthday on 25th January this year and has so much to celebrate. He’s had a terrific career as a soloist, a duo guitarist with the likes of John Williams and many other great Australian instrumentalists, and he’s the founder of Guitar Trek, Australia’s unique and pioneering guitar quartet.
January 1, 2021
Classical Guitar
It’s always a pleasure to visit John Williams. He’s a very natural person and the fact that he’s indisputably one of the finest guitarists who’s ever lived is, on these occasions, neither here nor there. Yes, that’s why I’m talking with him, making an interview for the magazine, but invariably we’re just chatting over coffee and then eventually lunch. Life goes on around us, it’s easygoing. There’s always something fresh, every time, and my visit to John coincided with a period in which he was preparing to work very seriously in a guitar duo. For anyone already doing this it’s a real fillip; if John Williams goes for something, the guitar world sits up and takes notice. It can only raise the profile. So I began by asking about his new duo with Tim Kain.