John Williams

John Towner Williams was born on February 8, 1932, in Queens, New York City, to Esther (née Towner) and Johnny Williams, a jazz drummer and percussionist who played with the Raymond Scott Quintet. He has an older sister, Joan, John Williams senior collaborated with Bernard Herrmann, and his son sometimes joined him in rehearsals. Like his father, he was also known as Johnny Williams into his young adult life, but he later went by John Williams. In 1948, the Williams family moved to Los Angeles. John attended North Hollywood High School and graduated in 1950. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and studied composition privately with the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Williams also attended Los Angeles City College for one semester to play for the school's studio jazz band. In 1951, Williams joined the U.S. Air Force, where he played the piano and bass, as well as conducted and arranged music for the U.S. Air Force Band. In March 1952, he was assigned to the Northeast Air Command 596th Air Force Band and was stationed at Pepperrell Air Force Base in St. John's, Newfoundland. He also attended music courses at the University of Arizona during his service. In 1955, following his service, Williams moved to New York City to study piano with Rosina Lhévinne at Juilliard. Williams neither enrolled in courses nor did he graduate from the school, instead taking private lessons from Lhévinne at her practice room on campus. He originally planned on becoming a concert pianist, but after hearing contemporary pianists like John Browning and Van Cliburn perform, he switched his focus to composition, recalling that he "could write better than [he] could play." During his studies, Williams found work in many of the city's jazz clubs as a pianist. ==Career==

Early career Following his studies at the Juilliard School of Music and the Eastman School of Music, Williams moved back to Los Angeles, where he began working as an orchestrator at film studios. During this period, Williams worked with such composers as Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Newman, and with fellow orchestrators Conrad Salinger and Bob Franklyn. Williams was also a studio pianist and session musician, performing scores by Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein and Henry Mancini. One of his first jobs was working under mentor Alfred Newman with an uncredited orchestral role for Carousel (1956), which coincidentally starred his soon-to-be wife Barbara Ruick. With Mancini, he recorded the scores of Peter Gunn (1959), ''Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Days of Wine and Roses (1962) and Charade'' (1963), and played the piano part of the guitar-piano ostinato in Mancini's Peter Gunn title theme. He released several jazz albums under the name Johnny Williams, including Jazz Beginnings, World on a String and The John Towner Touch. Film and television scoring Rise to prominence In 1952, Williams wrote his first film composition while stationed at Pepperrell Air Force Base for You Are Welcome, a promotional film created for the Province of Newfoundland tourist information office. He also worked on several episodes of M Squad (1957–60) and Checkmate (1960–62) and the pilot episode of ''Gilligan's Island'' (1964–67). The American-Japanese anti-war epic None but the Brave (1965) marked the beginning of Williams' full transition from television to major Hollywood film composing, and shaped his style for future blockbusters. A Variety reviewer highlighted his score for providing "excellent background". The film was also Williams' first collaboration with Frank Sinatra, who directed and starred in it. He later conducted for Sinatra at venues such as a Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center gala. Williams called William Wyler's How to Steal a Million (1966) "the first film [he] ever did for a major, super-talent director". Altman, known for giving actors free rein, had a similar approach to Williams, telling him to "do whatever you want. Do something you haven't done before." His prominence grew in the early 1970s thanks to his work for Irwin Allen's disaster films, such as The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Towering Inferno, and Earthquake (both 1974). Williams named his Images score as a favorite; he recalls "the score used all kinds of effects for piano, percussion, and strings. It had a debt to Varèse, whose music enormously interested me. If I had never written film scores, if I had proceeded writing concert music, it might have been in this vein". The score earned Williams his second Academy Award, his first for Best Original Score. Its ominous two-note ostinato has become a shorthand for approaching danger. The ostinato is derived from Ravel's La valse; the score also quotes Debussy's La mer and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Shortly thereafter, Spielberg and Williams began a two-year collaboration on Close Encounters of the Third Kind. They crafted the distinctive five-note motif that functions both in the score and in the story as the communications signal of the film's extraterrestrials. Darryn King writes: "One moment in that film captures some of Spielberg and Williams' alchemy: the musical dialogue between the humans and the otherworldly visitors, itself an artistic collaboration of sorts". Williams says the surprise of the final two notes comes from the fact that the first three notes of the theme are already resolved, adding "I realized that twenty years after the fact". For the latter, Williams wrote "The Raiders March" for the film's hero, Indiana Jones, as well as separate themes to represent the eponymous Ark of the Covenant, Jones's love interest Marion Ravenwood and the Nazi villains. Additional themes were written and featured in his scores for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023). Spielberg emphasized the importance of Williams' score to the Indiana Jones pictures: "Jones did not perish, but [he] listened carefully to the Raiders score. Its sharp rhythms told him when to run. Its slicing strings told him when to duck. Its several integrated themes told adventurer Jones when to kiss the heroine or smash the enemy. All things considered, Jones listened... and lived." Williams' score for Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) won him a fourth Oscar. The Spielberg-Williams collaboration resumed in 1987 with Empire of the Sun and continued with Always (1989), Hook (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and its sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Amistad (1997) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). Williams also contributed the theme music for, and scored several episodes of, Spielberg's anthology television series Amazing Stories (1985). ''Schindler's List'' (1993) proved to be a challenge for Williams; after viewing the rough cut with Spielberg, he was so overcome with emotion that he was hesitant to score the film. He told Spielberg, "I really think you need a better composer than I am for this film". Spielberg replied, "I know, but they're all dead". Williams asked classical violinist Itzhak Perlman to play the main theme for the film. Williams garnered his fourth Oscar for Best Original Score, his fifth overall. Williams composed the music for the opening logo to the DreamWorks Pictures film studio, which was co-founded by Spielberg. The logo made its debut in DreamWorks Pictures' first release The Peacemaker, released on September 26, 1997. In 2001, Williams scored Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence, which was based on an unfinished project Stanley Kubrick asked Spielberg to direct. A. O. Scott argued that the movie represented new directions for Williams, writing that Spielberg created "a mood as layered, dissonant and strange as John Williams' unusually restrained, modernist score". Per Kubrick's request, Williams included a quotation of Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier in his score. Williams' jazz-inspired score for Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can (2002) alluded to works by Henry Mancini. For The Terminal (2004), Williams wrote a national anthem for the fictional nation of Krakozhia. His score for Spielberg's War of the Worlds (2005) took inspiration from scores for classic monster movies. That same year, he scored Spielberg's epic historical drama film Munich. In 2011, after a three-year hiatus from film scoring, Williams composed the scores for Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse. The former was his first score for an animated film, and he employed various styles, including "1920s, 1930s European jazz" for the opening credits and "pirate music" for the maritime battles. The Oscar nominations were Williams' 46th and 47th, making him the most nominated musician in Academy Award history, previously tied with Alfred Newman's 45 nominations, and the second most nominated overall, behind Walt Disney. Williams won an Annie Award for his score for Tintin. In 2012, he scored Spielberg's Lincoln, for which he received his 48th Academy Award nomination. He was also set to write the score for Bridge of Spies that year, but in March 2015, it was announced that Thomas Newman would score it instead, as Williams' schedule was interrupted by a minor health issue. This was the first Spielberg film since The Color Purple (1985) not scored by Williams. Williams composed the scores for Spielberg's fantasy The BFG and his drama The Post (2017). In 2019, Williams served as music consultant for Spielberg's West Side Story (2021) and scored his semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans (2022). In June 2022, Williams announced that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, scheduled for a 2023 release, would likely be his last film score as he planned to retire from film and focus on solely composing concert music. However, he reversed this decision by January 2023, stating that he had at least "10 more years to go. I'll stick around for a while!". He compared the decision to Spielberg's father Arnold, who had worked in his field until he was 100. George Lucas, Star Wars, and other franchises Spielberg recommended Williams to his friend George Lucas, who needed a composer for his space opera Star Wars (1977). Williams's score is often described as Wagnerian due to its frequent use of leitmotifs. Williams downplays this influence: "People say they hear Wagner in 'Star Wars,' and I can only think, It's not because I put it there. Now, of course, I know that Wagner had a great influence on Korngold and all the early Hollywood composers. Wagner lives with us here—you can't escape it. I have been in the big river swimming with all of them." In 1980, Williams returned to score The Empire Strikes Back, introducing "The Imperial March" as the theme for Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire, "Yoda's Theme", and "Han Solo and the Princess". The original Star Wars trilogy concluded with Return of the Jedi, for which Williams provided the "Emperor's Theme", "Parade of the Ewoks", and "Luke and Leia". Both scores earned him Academy Award nominations. using harsh Sanskrit lyrics that broadened the style of music used in the Star Wars films. The use of vocal melodies was unusual for Williams, who generally preferred brass instruments. Also of note was "Anakin's Theme", which begins as an innocent childlike melody and morphs insidiously into a quote of the sinister "Imperial March". For Attack of the Clones, Williams composed "Across the Stars", a love theme for Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker (mirroring in part the love theme composed for The Empire Strikes Back). The final installment Revenge of the Sith combined many of the themes created for the series' previous films, including "The Emperor's Theme", "The Imperial March", "Across the Stars", "Duel of the Fates", "The Force Theme", "Rebel Fanfare", "Luke's Theme", and "Princess Leia's Theme", as well as new themes for General Grievous and the film's climax, titled "Battle of the Heroes". Williams also scored the first three film adaptations of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. The most important theme from Williams' scores for the Harry Potter films, "Hedwig's Theme", was used in each of the subsequent films in the series. Like the main themes from Jaws, Star Wars, Superman, and Indiana Jones, fans have come to identify the Harry Potter films with Williams' themes. Williams was asked to return to score the film franchise's final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, but director David Yates said that "their schedules simply did not align", as he would have had to provide Williams with a rough cut of the film sooner than was possible. In early 2013, Williams expressed interest in working on the Star Wars sequel trilogy, saying: "Now we're hearing of a new set of movies coming in 2015, 2016... so I need to make sure I'm still ready to go in a few years for what I hope would be continued work with George." In 2015, Williams scored Star Wars: The Force Awakens, earning him his 50th Academy Award nomination. In 2017, he wrote the music for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the eighth episode of the saga. Williams contributed "The Adventures of Han" and several additional demos for the 2018 standalone Star Wars film Solo: A Star Wars Story, while John Powell wrote the film's original score and adapted Williams' music. In March 2018, Williams announced that following Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), he would retire from composing music for the Star Wars franchise: "We know J. J. Abrams is preparing one Star Wars movie now that I will hopefully do next year for him. I look forward to it. It will round out a series of nine, that will be quite enough for me." Williams also makes a cameo in the film as Oma Tres, a Kijimi bartender. In July 2018, Williams composed the main musical theme for Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park attraction ''Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge''. William Ross, who conducted the symphonic recording of the theme with the London Symphony Orchestra on Williams' behalf, additionally arranged Williams' original composition in different musical contexts for use, recording nearly an hour of musical material at Abbey Road Studios in November 2018. Williams won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for his ''Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Symphonic Suite. In 2022, he contributed the theme music for the Star Wars miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi'', which was subsequently adapted further by William Ross. Other film and television works Williams scored Alfred Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot (1976), as well as John Guillermin's The Towering Inferno (1974), Clint Eastwood's The Eiger Sanction (1975), John Frankenheimer's Black Sunday (1977), John Badham's Dracula (1979), Allan Arkush's Heartbeeps (1981) and Frank Perry's Monsignor (1982). He also contributed the Oscar and Golden Globe nominated song "If We Were in Love" (with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman) to Franklin J. Schaffner's Yes, Giorgio (1982). For Family Plot, Hitchcock told Williams to remember one thing: "Murder can be fun". Taking inspiration from Hitchcock's frequent composer, Bernard Herrmann, Hitchcock was pleased with the result. Williams followed a similar approach when scoring Brian de Palma's The Fury (1978). Kael called Williams "a major collaborator" on the film, writing that he had "composed what may be as apt and delicately varied a score as any horror movie has ever had. He scares us without banshee melodramatics. He sets the mood under the opening titles: otherworldly, seductively frightening. The music cues us in". That same year, Williams scored Richard Donner's Superman (1978). Donner reportedly interrupted the demo premiere of the opening title by running onto the soundstage, exclaiming, "The music actually says 'Superman'!" King writes that "Donner had a theory that the three-note motif in the main theme—the one that makes you want to punch the air in triumph—is a musical evocation of 'SU-per-MAN!. When asked if there was anything to that, Williams replied "There's everything to that." In 1985, NBC commissioned Williams to compose a television news music package for various network news spots. The package, which Williams named "The Mission", consists of four movements, two of which are still used heavily by NBC today for Today, NBC Nightly News and Meet the Press. In 1987, Williams scored George Miller's The Witches of Eastwick (1987). In his Oscar-nominated score for Lawrence Kasdan's The Accidental Tourist (1988), Williams developed the two main theme sections in different ways, turning the mood lighter or darker through orchestration and an unexpected use of synthesizers. Other frequent collaborations with directors include Martin Ritt (''Pete 'n' Tillie (1972), Conrack (1974) and Stanley & Iris (1990)), Mark Rydell (The Reivers (1969), The Cowboys (1972), Cinderella Liberty (1973) and The River (1984)), Oliver Stone (Born on the Fourth of July (1989), JFK (1991) and Nixon (1995)), and Chris Columbus (the first two Home Alone films (1990–1992), Stepmom (1998) and the first two Harry Potter'' films (2001–2002)). Additional films Williams scored during this period include Harry Winer's SpaceCamp (1986), Alan J. Pakula's Presumed Innocent (1990), Ron Howard's Far and Away (1992), Sydney Pollack's Sabrina (1995), Barry Levinson's Sleepers (1996), John Singleton's Rosewood and Jean-Jacques Annaud's Seven Years in Tibet (1997), Alan Parker's ''Angela's Ashes'' (1999), Roland Emmerich's The Patriot (2000) and Rob Marshall's Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). Williams scored the 2013 film The Book Thief, his first collaboration with a director other than Spielberg since 2005. The score earned him an Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations and a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition. It was his 44th nomination for Best Original Score (and 49th overall), setting a new record for the most nominations in that category (he tied Alfred Newman's record of 43 nominations in 2013). In 2017, Williams scored the animated short film Dear Basketball, directed by Glen Keane and based on a poem by Kobe Bryant. In 2023, he was commissioned by ESPN to write an original composition titled "Of Grit and Glory" for the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship. Classical works and conducting Boston Pops Orchestra From 1980 to 1993, Williams served as the Boston Pops' principal conductor, succeeding Arthur Fiedler. Williams never met Fiedler in person but spoke to him by telephone. His arrival as the Pops' new leader in the spring of 1980 allowed him to devote part of the Pops' first PBS broadcast of the season to presenting his new compositions for The Empire Strikes Back. Williams almost ended his tenure with the Pops in 1984 when some players hissed while sight-reading a new Williams composition in rehearsal; Williams abruptly left the session and tendered his resignation. He initially cited mounting conflicts with his film composing schedule but later admitted a perceived lack of discipline in, and respect from, the Pops' ranks, culminating in this latest instance. After entreaties by the management and personal apologies from the musicians, Williams withdrew his resignation and continued as principal conductor for nine more years. In 1995, he was succeeded by Keith Lockhart, the former associate conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Williams is now the Pops' laureate conductor, thus maintaining his affiliation with its parent Boston Symphony Orchestra. 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 conducts an annual Film Night at both Boston Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, where he frequently enlists the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Compositions Williams has written many concert pieces, including a symphony; a sinfonietta for wind ensemble; a concerto for horn written for Dale Clevenger, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's principal horn; a concerto for clarinet written for Michele Zukovsky, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's principal clarinetist, in 1991; 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 for Sony Classical by Williams with LeClair and the London Symphony Orchestra. His "Violin Concerto No. 2" was written for and premiered by Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in 2021, with Williams conducting. Williams composed the Liberty Fanfare for the Statue of Liberty's rededication; "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. One of his concert works, Seven for Luck, for soprano and orchestra, is a seven-piece song cycle based on the texts of former U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove. It had its world premiere by the Boston Symphony under Williams with soprano Cynthia Haymon. He composed the quartet Air and Simple Gifts for the first inauguration of Barack Obama. The piece is based on the hymn "Simple Gifts", made famous by Aaron Copland in Appalachian Spring. Williams chose the theme because he knew Obama admired Copland. It was performed by Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriela Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill. Williams has guest conducted "The President's Own" United States Marine Band on several occasions, who commissioned him in 2013 to write "Fanfare for The President's Own" (his first concert band work since his sinfonietta for wind ensemble) in honor of their 215th anniversary. In 2023, Williams was made an honorary U.S. Marine at the conclusion of his fifth concert with the Marine Band at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. In 2021, Williams conducted the world premiere of "Overture to the Oscars" at Tanglewood's 2021 "Film Night". This was followed in 2022 by a "Fanfare for Solo Trumpet", written for the reopening of David Geffen Hall, and "Centennial Overture", written in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Hollywood Bowl. He composed a piano concerto for Emanuel Ax which premiered at Tanglewood in July 2025. Conductor In February 2004, April 2006, and September 2007, Williams conducted the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. The initial program was intended to be a one-time special event, and featured Williams' medley of Oscar-winning film scores first performed at the previous year's Academy Awards. Its unprecedented popularity led to two concerts in 2006, fundraising gala events featuring personal recollections by Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. Continued demand fueled three more concerts in 2007, which all sold out. These featured a tribute to the musicals of Stanley Donen and served as the New York Philharmonic season's opening event. After a three-season absence, Williams conducted the Philharmonic once again in October 2011. After over a ten-year break, Williams returned to New York in 2022 to conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra for a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall, with special guest violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. The next year, he was feted at a gala at David Geffen Hall by Spielberg, celebrating their nearly fifty-year collaboration. In 2024, he returned to headline another gala at Carnegie Hall with the Philadelphia Orchestra, this time with Yo-Yo Ma as his special guest. Williams also conducted the National Symphony Orchestra, the U.S. Army Herald Trumpets, the Joint Armed Forces Chorus, and the Choral Arts Society of Washington in his new arrangement of "The Star-Spangled Banner" for the anthem's 200th anniversary. The performance was held at A Capitol Fourth, an Independence Day celebration concert in Washington, D.C., on July 4, 2014. On April 13, 2017, at Star Wars Celebration Orlando, Williams performed a surprise concert with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra featuring "Princess Leia's Theme" (a tribute to the recently deceased Carrie Fisher), "The Imperial March" and "Main Title", followed by George Lucas saying, "The secret sauce of Star Wars, the greatest composer-conductor in the universe, John Williams". Anne-Sophie Mutter, introduced to Williams by their mutual friend André Previn, collaborated with Williams on an album, Across the Stars, on which Mutter played themes and pieces from Williams' film scores in his new arrangements for violin. It was released in August 2019. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra invited Williams to lead concerts in January 2020, his first engagement with a European orchestra, for an all-Williams concert featuring Mutter as soloist. The concert included many pieces from Across the Stars. The resulting concert album, John Williams in Vienna, became the bestselling orchestral album of 2020, reaching the top 10 in many countries and topping the U.S. and UK classical charts. The orchestra also commissioned a new procedural from Williams for their annual , replacing the 1924 fanfare by Richard Strauss. (left), Williams, and Spielberg at David Geffen Hall in 2023 Williams conducted the Berlin Philharmonic from October 14–16, 2021, marking his second engagement with a European orchestra and his first with the Berlin Philharmonic. In 2022, in celebration of his 90th birthday, Williams conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in March, and was honored on August 20 with a tribute at Tanglewood. The tribute at Tanglewood featured James Taylor, Yo-Yo Ma, and Branford Marsalis. The Boston Symphony Orchestra performed some of Williams' best-known music, with Williams conducting the "Raiders March" from the Indiana Jones movies at the end of the show. Williams made a surprise appearance at the U.S. premiere of the Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) on June 15, where he conducted themes with a live symphony orchestra. Also present were Spielberg, Lucas, Harrison Ford, and James Mangold. Later that year, he conducted the Saito Kinen Orchestra in Matsumoto and Tokyo, Japan, marking his return to the country for the first time in over thirty years. ==Personal life==

In 1956, Williams married Barbara Ruick, an American actress and singer, and they remained married until her death in 1974. The couple had three children: Jennifer "Jenny" Williams Gruska (b. 1956), Mark Towner Williams (b. 1958), and Joseph Williams (b. 1960); the latter is best known as the lead singer of Toto. Through his daughter Jennifer, his grandchildren are Barbara Gruska and Ethan Gruska, who are the members of the duo band The Belle Brigade. In 1980, Williams married Samantha Winslow, a photographer. Williams lives in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. == Awards, recognition and legacy ==

Williams is regarded as one of the most influential film composers of all time. His work has influenced other composers of film, popular, and contemporary classical music. Norwegian composer Marcus Paus argues that Williams' "satisfying way of embodying dissonance and avant-garde techniques within a larger tonal framework" makes him "one of the great composers of any century". Similarly, his film music has clear influences from other classical and film composers, including Holst, Stravinsky, Korngold, and others. While some have specifically referenced the similarities, these are generally attributed to the natural influence of one composer on another. The Boston Globe named Williams as "the most successful composer of film music in the history of the medium". Williams has been nominated for 54 Academy Awards, winning five; six Emmy Awards, winning three; 25 Golden Globe Awards, winning four; 77 Grammy Awards, winning 26; and has received seven British Academy Film Awards. With 54 Oscar nominations, Williams currently holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for a living person and is the second most nominated person in Academy Awards history behind Walt Disney's 59. Williams is the only person to be nominated for an Academy Award in seven consecutive decades (the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s). He is also the oldest person, at age 91, ever to be nominated for an Academy Award. Forty-eight of Williams' Oscar nominations are for Best Original Score and five are for Best Original Song. He won four Oscars for Best Original Score (Jaws, Star Wars, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, ''Schindler's List) and one for Best Scoring: Adaptation and Original Song Score (Fiddler on the Roof)''. Williams was the subject of an hour-long documentary for the BBC in 1980, and was featured in a report on 20/20 in 1983. as well as Honorary Doctor of Music degrees from Boston College in 1993, from Harvard University in 2017, and from the University of Pennsylvania in 2021. Williams was made an honorary brother of Kappa Kappa Psi at Boston University in 1993, upon his impending retirement from the Boston Pops. Since 1988, Williams has been honored with 15 Sammy Film Music Awards, the longest-running awards for film music recordings. In 2000, Williams received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. Williams was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1998. He has also been inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. Williams was honored with the annual Richard Kirk award at the 1999 BMI Film and TV Awards, recognizing his contribution to film and television music. In 2004, he received a Kennedy Center Honor. He won a Classic Brit Award in 2005 for his soundtrack work of the previous year. Williams has won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for his scores for Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, The Empire Strikes Back, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, ''Angela's Ashes, Munich, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and The Book Thief''. The competition includes not only composers of film scores, but also composers of instrumental music of any genre, including composers of classical fare such as symphonies and chamber music. In 2003, the International Olympic Committee accorded Williams its highest individual honor, the Olympic Order. In 2009, Williams received the National Medal of Arts in the White House in Washington, D.C., for his achievements in symphonic music for films, and "as a pre-eminent composer and conductor [whose] scores have defined and inspired modern movie-going for decades". In 2012, Williams received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2013, Williams was presented with the Ken Burns Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2016, Williams was made a ''Chevalier De L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' – Government of France In 2018, the performing rights organization Broadcast Music, Inc. established The John Williams Award, of which Williams became the first recipient. That same year, Williams received the Grammy Trustees Award, a Special Merit Award presented to individuals who, during their careers in music, have made significant contributions other than performance (and some performers through 1983) to the field of recording. He additionally received a President's Medal award from The Juilliard School and announced during the ceremony that he intended to bequeath his entire library of concert and film music scores, as well as his sketchbooks, to the college. In 2020, Williams won the Grammy Award for "Best Instrumental Composition" for composing ''Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Symphonic Suite, and he received his 52nd Oscar nomination for "Best Original Score" at the 92nd Academy Awards for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.'' In 2020, Williams received the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society as well as the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts (jointly with Ennio Morricone). In 2022, Williams was awarded an honorary knighthood (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II, "for services to film music", one of the final two honorary knighthoods awarded during the Queen's seventy-year reign. In 2024, Williams was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters (jointly with Terence Blanchard) and received the Disney Legends award at the Honda Center in August of the same year. On April 29, 2026, the John Williams Performing Arts Center was named in his honor at North Hollywood High School, his alma mater. ==Concert works==

Concertos • 1969: Concerto for Flute and Orchestra • 1974: Violin Concerto No. 1 • 1985: Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra • 1991: Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra • 1993: Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra, The Five Sacred Trees • 1994: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra • 1996: Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra • 1997: Elegy for Cello and Orchestra • 2000: TreeSong for Violin and Orchestra • 2002: Heartwood: Lyric Sketches for Cello and Orchestra • 2002: Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra (adapted from the Catch Me If You Can film score) • 2003: Concerto for Horn and Orchestra • 2009: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra • 2009: On Willows and Birches, for Harp and Orchestra • 2011: Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra • 2014: Prelude and Scherzo for Piano and Orchestra • 2017: Markings for Violin, Strings and Harp • 2018: ''Highwood's Ghost, An Encounter'' for Cello, Harp and Orchestra • 2021: Violin Concerto No. 2 • 2025: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra Other orchestral works • 1965: Prelude and Fugue (recorded on Stan Kenton Conducts the Los Angeles Neophonic Orchestra (Capitol, 1965)) • 1965: Symphony no. 1 • 1965: Essay for Strings • 1968: Sinfonietta for Wind Ensemble • 1975: Thomas and the King – Musical • 1980: Jubilee 350 Fanfare • 1984: Olympic Fanfare & Theme • 1986: Liberty Fanfare • 1987: A Hymn to New England • 1988: Fanfare for Michael Dukakis • 1988: For New York • 1990: Celebrate Discovery • 1993: Sound the Bells! • 1994: Song for World Peace • 1995: Variations on Happy Birthday • 1999: American Journey • 2003: Soundings • 2007: Star Spangled Banner • 2008: A Timeless Call • 2012: Fanfare for Fenway • 2012: Seven for Luck for soprano and orchestra • 2013: For 'The President's Own' • 2014: Star Spangled Banner • 2021: Overture to the Oscars • 2022: Centennial Overture • 2023: Of Grit and Glory Chamber works • 1951: Sonata for Piano • 1997: Elegy for Cello and Piano • 2001: Three Pieces for Solo Cello • 2007: Duo Concertante for Violin and Viola • 2009: Air and Simple Gifts for violin, cello, clarinet and piano • 2011: Quartet La Jolla for violin, cello, clarinet and harp • 2012: Rounds for solo guitar • 2013: Conversations for solo piano • 2014: Music for Brass for Brass Ensemble and Percussion ==Discography==

Charting hit singles (U.S., Billboard) == See also ==