John Barham

John Barham is an English classical pianist, composer, arranger, producer and educator. He is best known for his orchestration of George Harrison albums such as ''All Things Must Pass'' (1970) and for his association with Indian sitar maestro Ravi Shankar.

Barham trained at the Royal College of Music and the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, before establishing himself during the mid 1960s as a composer of piano interpretations of Indian classical ragas. He became a student of Shankar, for whose East–West collaborations with Yehudi Menuhin and others he transcribed Indian melodies into Western musical annotation. Through Shankar, Barham began a long friendship with Harrison in 1966, then a member of the Beatles, which assisted Harrison's own education in Indian music as well as his promotion of the genre to Western audiences. Barham collaborated with Harrison on the latter's '' Wonderwall Music'' soundtrack album (1968), before providing the orchestral arrangements for ''All Things Must Pass'' songs such as "Isn't It a Pity" and "My Sweet Lord", and for Harrison's 1973 album '' Living in the Material World''.

Most often in the role of orchestral or choral arranger, Barham also contributed to albums such as the Beatles' '' Let It Be'', John Lennon's '' Imagine'' and Gary Wright's ''Footprint'' in the early 1970s. His projects as a music producer during the same period included three albums by progressive rock band Quintessence, and he has worked on film or TV soundtracks for directors Otto Preminger, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jonathan Miller. Other artists with whom Barham has worked include Elton John, André Previn, Phil Spector, Roger Daltrey, Yoko Ono and Jackie Lomax.

Continuing his interest in Indian music, Barham released an album with ya Aashish Khan in 1973, ''Jugalbandi'', and contributed to Shankar's final collaboration with Harrison, '' Chants of India'', in 1996. Among his educational positions, he has taught at Trinity College of Music, London, and in Ghana at the Achimota School.

Early recognition and work with Ravi Shankar

Born in London in the 1940s, John Barham studied piano, trumpet and music composition at the Royal College of Music. He then attended London University's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he developed an interest in Indian classical music. Among English classical musicians of the mid 1960s, Barham's piano compositions based on Indian ragas were unprecedented and brought him to the attention of members of India's cultural community in London. Some of his works were first performed and recorded for radio broadcast by British pianist John Bingham (Reflections and Piano Concerto).

Barham became a student of Indian sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar, whose international popularity by 1966 had grown to include Western rock audiences.Ken Hunt
"Ravi Shankar"
AllMusic (retrieved 24 November 2013). In June that year, Barham attended the Bath Music Festival in the west of England, where Shankar and American violinist Yehudi Menuhin were due to perform an historic duet.Leng, p. 26. At Shankar's request, Barham transcribed the sitarist's adaptation of Raga Tilang into Western musical annotation for Menuhin's benefit, after Shankar had been dissatisfied with German musician Peter Feuchtwanger

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