John Williams
Composer, Conductor
In a career spanning nearly seven decades, John Williams has become one of America’s most accomplished and successful composers for film and 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 nine 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 five-decade 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, The Fabelmans, and Disclosure Day. His 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 54 Oscar nominations, a record that makes 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), 27 Grammys, four Golden Globes, three Emmys, and numerous gold and platinum records. In 2003, he received the Olympic Order (the International Olympic Committee’s highest honor) for his contributions to the Olympic movement. He received a prestigious Kennedy Center Honor in December 2004. In 2009, John Williams was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he received the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists by the US government. In 2016, he received the 44th Life Achievement Award of the American Film Institute—the first time in its history that this honor was bestowed upon a composer. In 2020, he received Spain’s Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts as well as the Gold Medal from the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society in the UK, and in 2022 he was awarded an honorary knighthood of the British Empire as one of the final awards approved by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
In January 1980, John Williams was named 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. 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 Orchestra, a bassoon concerto for the New York Philharmonic, a trumpet concerto for The Cleveland Orchestra, and a horn concerto for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 2009, the Boston Symphony premiered his concerto for harp and orchestra titled On Willows and Birches, and in the same year, Williams composed and arranged “Air and Simple Gifts” especially for the first inaugural ceremony of President Barack Obama. In 2021, Williams premiered his second violin concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood along with soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter, for whom he composed the work. He recently composed a concerto for pianist Emanuel Ax, who premiered the work with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in July 2025 and will reprise it with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in spring 2027.
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John Williams on Spotify
Listen to John Williams on Spotify.
The LA Phil and The Force
John Williams' relationship with the orchestra began a long time ago, in a venue not too far away.
Podcast: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in Concert with Marc Bolin • LA Phil 2023/24
Scholar Marc Bolin leads a conversation on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in Concert.
John Williams Celebration: Performance & Interview
Marking his 90th birthday, the composer behind the musical heartbeat of countless films and a friend of the LA Phil joins Dudamel for a musical celebration.
John Williams: Maestro of the Movies Playlist
John Williams’ historic association with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Hollywood Bowl is legendary. You’re sure to find more than one of your favorite works in this exciting collection compiled by the LA Phil from the composer’s extensive film score history.
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