John Williams

In a career spanning more than five decades, John Williams has become one of America’s most accomplished and successful composers for film and for the concert stage, and he remains one of our nation’s most distinguished and contributive musical voices. He has composed the music and served as music director for more than 100 films, including all eight Star Wars films, the first three Harry Potter films, Superman, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July, Memoirs of a Geisha, Far and Away, The Accidental Tourist, Home Alone and The Book Thief. His 45-year artistic partnership with director Steven Spielberg has resulted in many of Hollywood’s most acclaimed and successful films, including Schindler’s List, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Indiana Jones films, Munich, Saving Private Ryan, The Adventures of Tintin, War Horse, Lincoln, The BFG, The Post and The Fabelmans.

Mr. Williams’ contributions to television music include scores for more than 200 television films for the groundbreaking, early anthology series Alcoa Theatre, Kraft Television Theatre, Chrysler Theatre and Playhouse 90, as well as themes for NBC Nightly News (“The Mission”), NBC’s Meet the Press and the PBS arts showcase Great Performances. He also composed themes for the 1984, 1988 and 1996 Summer Olympic Games, and the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. He has received five Academy Awards and 51 Oscar nominations, making him the Academy’s most-nominated living person and the second-most nominated person in the history of the Oscars. He has received seven British Academy Awards (BAFTA), 24 Grammys, four Golden Globes, five Emmys and numerous gold and platinum records.

In 2003 Mr. Williams received the Olympic Order (the IOC’s highest honor) for his contributions to the Olympic movement. He received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors in December of 2004. In 2009 Mr. Williams was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and he received the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists by the U.S. Government. In 2016 he received the 44th Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute – the first time in their history that this honor was bestowed upon a composer. In January 1980 Mr. Williams was named the 19th music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra, succeeding the legendary Arthur Fiedler. He currently holds the title of Boston Pops Laureate Conductor, which he assumed following his retirement in December 1993, after 14 highly successful seasons. He also holds

the title of Artist-in-Residence at Tanglewood.

Mr. Williams has composed numerous works for the concert stage, among them two symphonies and concertos commissioned by several of the world’s leading orchestras, including a cello concerto for the Boston Symphony, a bassoon concerto for the New York Philharmonic, a trumpet concerto for The Cleveland Orchestra and a horn concerto for the Chicago Symphony. In 2009 Mr. Williams composed and arranged Air and Simple Gifts especially for the first inaugural ceremony of President Barack Obama, and in September 2009 the Boston Symphony premiered a new concerto for harp and orchestra entitled On Willows and Birches.

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Please contact Jack Mizutani, Senior Director of Special Events, at 305.428.6777 or Jack.Mizutani@nws.edu for further details.