John Williams

John Williams is, by almost any measure, the most influential composer of orchestral music in the past half-century. Born in Queens in 1932 to a jazz percussionist father, he took piano lessons in New York with the legendary Rosina Lhévinne of Juilliard and at first planned a career as a concert pianist before turning to composition. Five Academy Awards (for Fiddler on the Roof, Jaws, Star Wars, E.T., and Schindler’s List), more than two dozen Grammy Awards, and an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 only begin to suggest his impact.

Less widely known is Williams’s parallel career as a composer of concert music. Across more than five decades he has produced a symphony and a long line of concertos, for flute, violin, cello, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, tuba and more, many written for celebrated soloists of our time. From 1980 until 1993 he served as conductor of the Boston Pops, and he remains its laureate conductor today.