John Williams

"There’s a very basic human, non-verbal aspect to our need to make music and use it as part of our human expression. It doesn’t have to do with body movements, it doesn't have to do with articulation of a language, but with something spiritual."   John Williams

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is one of the most widely recognized composers of film scores. As of 2006, he has received 45 Academy Award nominations, an accomplishment surpassed only by Walt Disney.

Williams is best known for heroic, rousing themes to adventure and fantasy films. These include some of the highest grossing films of all time, such as Star Wars, Superman, Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, and the first three Harry Potter movies. His richly thematic and highly popular 1977 score to the first Star Wars film was selected in 2005 by the American Film Institute as the greatest American movie score of all time. In that AFI list of 25, he had Star Wars and two others. So far, five of his film scores have won Oscars.

His long career has also included many sensitive dramatic scores (such as Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan) and more experimental concert works. As of March 2006, his latest works include the scores for the recent movies Munich and Memoirs of a Geisha.

John Williams was born in Floral Park, New York. In 1948 he moved with his family to Los Angeles, California, where he attended North Hollywood High School and later UCLA. He also studied composition privately with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who also taught another famous film score composer, Jerry Goldsmith.

In 1952, Williams was drafted and entered the United States Air Force, where he conducted and arranged music for Air Force bands. When discharged in 1954, he returned to New York. There, he went to Juilliard, the alma mater of musicians including the composer Philip Glass and violinist Itzhak Perlman (with whom Williams released an album, Cinema Serenade, in 1997). He studied piano at the school with Madame Rosina LhÉvinne. In New York, he worked as a jazz pianist. He also played with noted composer Henry Mancini and even performed on the recording of the famous Peter Gunn theme. In the early 1960's, he served as arranger/bandleader on a series of popular albums with singer Frankie Laine.

Williams later returned to Los Angeles, where he began his career in the film industry, working with such composers as Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman and Franz Waxman, in essence with his idols/ models/ early influences. He also lent his talents as a studio pianist, performing in scores by the likes of Jerry Goldsmith and Elmer Bernstein. He began his career composing TV scores for series including Lost in Space (as "Johnny" Williams) and The Time Tunnel. He went on to write music for many television programs in the 1960's, winning four Emmy Awards for his work. In the early 1970's, he established himself as a composer for big-budget disaster films with scores for The Towering Inferno, Earthquake, and The Poseidon Adventure. In 1974, Williams was approached by a young Steven Spielberg to write the music for his feature debut, The Sugarland Express. They re-teamed for the director's second film, Jaws, featuring an ominous two-note motif representing the shark. Spielberg's friendship with director George Lucas led to Williams's composing for the Star Wars movies.

Williams has received forty-three Academy Award nominations, of which he has won five. He currently holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for a living person and has the same number of Oscar nominations as Alfred Newman. Williams has received four Emmy Awards, seven BAFTAs (British Academy of Film and Television Arts), eighteen Grammy Awards, three Golden Globes, and numerous gold and platinum records. (The soundtrack album for the original Star Wars film - now known as Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope - has sold more than four million copies, making it one of the most successful non-pop albums in recording history.) On January 16, 2006, Williams won a Golden Globe, his fourth, for his score in Memoirs of a Geisha.

Williams has been inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. In 2004 he received a Kennedy Center Honor. He also won a Classical Brit award in 2005 for his soundtrack work of the previous year.

In January 1980, Williams succeeded the legendary Arthur Fiedler and became the nineteenth Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra since its founding in 1885. His arrival as the new leader of the Pops allowed him to devote part of the Pops' first PBS broadcast of the season to presenting his new compositions for The Empire Strikes Back, in addition to conducting many Fiedler audience favorites.

Williams leads the Pops on several occasions each year, particularly during their Holiday Pops season and typically for a week of concerts in May. He also frequently enlists the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, official chorus of the BSO, to provide a choral accompaniment to films (such as Saving Private Ryan). He currently holds the title of Boston Pops Laureate Conductor which he assumed following his retirement in December, 1993 after fourteen highly successful seasons. Williams also holds the title of Artist-in-Residence at Tanglewood.

In 1990, John Williams and the Boston Pops started making recordings exclusively for Sony Classical. To date, these have included:

• Music Of The Night (an album of contemporary and classical show tunes)
• I Love A Parade (a collection of favorite marches),
• The Spielberg / Williams Collaboration (featuring Williams' music for Spielberg's films),
• The Green Album, which includes This Land Is Your Land, Simple Gifts and Theme For Earth Day
• a Christmas album entitled Joy To The World
• an album of music by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and Jerome Kern entitled Unforgettable
• a tribute to Frank Sinatra entitled Night And Day
• an album featuring music by John Williams and Aaron Copland entitled Music For Stage And Screen
• It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing, with vocalist Nancy Wilson
• Williams on Williams: The Classic Spielberg Scores

Williams' most recent recording with the Boston Pops Orchestra is entitled Summon The Heroes, the title track of which was the official theme for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

Williams has led the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra on United States Tours in 1985, 1989, and 1992 and on a tour of Japan in 1987. He led the Boston Pops Orchestra on tours of Japan in 1990 and 1993. In addition to leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall and at Tanglewood,

Williams has appeared as guest conductor with a number of major orchestras, including the London Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with which he has appeared many times at the Hollywood Bowl. Williams holds honorary degrees from twenty American universities, including The Juilliard School, Berklee College of Music in Boston, Boston College, Northeastern University, Tufts University, Boston University, the New England Conservatory of Music, the University of Massachusetts at Boston, The Eastman School of Music, and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Williams recently served as the Grand Marshal of the 2004 Rose Parade in Pasadena, and was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor this past December.

Academy Awards Nominations and Awards... Oscars winners are bold-faced.

• Valley of the Dolls (1967) Oscar nomination
• The Reivers (1969) Oscar nomination
• Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969) Oscar nomination
• Fiddler on the Roof (1971) Oscar winner
• Images (1972) Oscar nomination
• The Poseidon Adventure (1972) Oscar nomination
• Cinderella Liberty (1973) Oscar nomination
• Tom Sawyer (1973) Oscar nomination
• The Towering Inferno (1974) Oscar nomination
• Jaws (1975) Golden Globe, BAFTA & Oscar winner
• Star Wars (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope - 1977) Oscar, Golden Globe & BAFTA winner, Platinum Album
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Oscar nomination, Gold Album
• Superman: The Movie (1978) double Grammy & Oscar nomination
• Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) double Grammy & Oscar nomination, BAFTA winner, Gold Album
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) double Grammy & Oscar nomination
• Yes, Giorgio (1982) Oscar nomination
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Golden Globe, Oscar & BAFTA winner, Gold Album
• Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983) Oscar nomination
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) Oscar nomination
• The River (1984) Oscar nomination
• Empire of the Sun (1987) Oscar nomination, BAFTA winner
• The Witches of Eastwick (1987) Oscar nomination
• The Accidental Tourist (1988) Oscar nomination
• Born on the Fourth of July (1989) Oscar nomination
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Oscar nomination
• Home Alone (1990) double Oscar nominations
• Hook (1991) Grammy & Oscar nominations
• JFK (1991) Oscar nomination
• Schindler's List (1993) Oscar, Grammy and BAFTA winner, Gold Album
• Jurassic Park (1994) Gold Album
• Nixon (1995) Oscar nomination
• Sabrina (1995) double Oscar nominations
• Sleepers (1996) Oscar nomination
• Amistad (1997) Grammy & Oscar nominations
• Saving Private Ryan (1998) Golden Globe, Grammy & Oscar nominations
• Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) Grammy nomination
• Angela's Ashes (1999) Grammy & Oscar nomination
• The Patriot (2000) Oscar nomination
• A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) Grammy & Oscar nominations
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) double Grammy & Oscar nomination
• Catch Me If You Can (2002) Oscar nomination
• Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Gold Album(2002)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) Grammy nomination
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) Grammy & Oscar nominations
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) double Grammy nominations
• War of the Worlds (2005) Grammy nomination
• Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) Golden Globe and BAFTA winner, Oscar nomination
• Munich (2005) Oscar nomination

Grammy awards

• Jaws (1975) (Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture)
• Star Wars (1977) (Best Pop Instrumental Performance)
• Main Title from Star Wars (1977) (Best Instrumental Composition)
• Star Wars (1977) (Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture) - Platinum Album
• Theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1978) (Best Instrumental Composition)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1978) (Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture) - Gold Album
• Main Title Theme from Superman (1979) (Best Instrumental Composition)
• Superman (1979) (Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture)
• The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (Best Instrumental Composition)
• The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture) - Gold Album
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) (Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture)
• Flying (Theme from E.T.) (1982) (Best Instrumental Composition)
• E.T. (1982) (Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture) - Gold Album
• Flying (Theme from E.T.) (1982) (Best Arrangement on an Instrumental Recording)
• Olympic Fanfare and Theme (1984) (Best Instrumental Composition)
• Schindler's List (1994) (Instrumental Composition for a Motion Picture or Television) - Gold Album
• Saving Private Ryan (1998) (Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television)
• Theme from Angela's Ashes (2000) (Best Instrumental Composition)

Williams has written many concert pieces, including a symphony, Concerto for Clarinet written for Michele Zukovsky (Principal Clarinetist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic) in 1991, a sinfonietta for wind ensemble, a cello concerto premiered by Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in 1994, concertos for the flute and violin recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, and a trumpet concerto, which was premiered by the Cleveland Orchestra and their principal trumpet Michael Sachs in September 1996. His bassoon concerto, The Five Sacred Trees, which was premiered by the New York Philharmonic and principal bassoon player Judith LeClair in 1995, was recorded by Williams with LeClair and the London Symphony Orchestra. His concert work Seven for Luck for soprano and orchestra, a seven-piece song cycle based on the texts of former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, was given its world premiere by the Boston Symphony under Williams with soprano Cynthia Haymon at Tanglewood in 1998. Williams also composed his American Journey, an orchestral work written to commemorate the new millennium and to accompany the retrospective film The Unfinished Journey, directed by Steven Spielberg. The film and music were premiered at the "America's Millennium" concert in Washington, DC on New Year's Eve 1999. Williams was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to compose a new concerto for French horn and orchestra for its principal horn Dale Clevenger.

In addition, Williams composed the well-known NBC News theme The Mission (which he has occasionally performed in concert for surprised audiences), Liberty Fanfare for the re-dedication of the Statue of Liberty, We're Lookin' Good!, for the Special Olympics in celebration of the 1987 International Summer Games, and themes for the 1984, 1988, 1996, and 2002 Olympic games.

John Williams is an accomplished pianist, as can be heard in various scores in which he provides solos, as well as a handful of European classical music recordings.