Surprise birthday party for Deer Hunter artist

CORK schoolchildren won the heart of a world-renowned classical guitarist yesterday after springing a birthday surprise on him.

John Williams, whose recording of Cavatina became the theme song for the 1979 Oscar-winning The Deer Hunter movie, was in Cork’s central library for an informal masterclass with 80 children from inner city schools. It was his 67th birthday.

He had agreed to do the event free of charge before his performance at the Cork School of Music last night.

Mr Williams spent up to half an hour teaching the children various guitar techniques.

But following his performance of Cavatina, librarian Kitty Buckley told him the children wanted to sing him a song.

He burst into laughter as they sang ‘Happy Birthday’, and a birthday cake was produced.

“He was very taken aback and delighted,” Ms Buckley said. “And he seemed to like the cake too — he ate almost a quarter of it before leaving for another engagement.”

Ms Buckley said the event was a huge success. “He was so nice and lovely. It was a very informal event and he really captured the imagination of the children, he was right on their level,” she said.

She thanked staff at the School of Music for helping arrange the event.

Cavatina was originally written by Stanley Myers for piano, but Williams suggested reworking it for guitar before it became The Deer Hunter theme.

Cleo Laine wrote lyrics to the music and recorded He Was Beautiful, accompanied by Williams. He also achieved world success with the group Sky, and remains one of the world’s foremost classical guitarists.