John Williams

John Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. With a career spanning over six decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognizable, and critically acclaimed film scores in cinematic history, including those of the Star Wars series, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones series, the first two Home Alone films, Hook, the first two Jurassic Park films, Schindler’s List, and the first three Harry Potter films.

Williams has been associated with director Steven Spielberg since 1974, composing music for all but three of his feature films. Other works by Williams include theme music for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, the television series Lost in Space and Land of the Giants, and the incidental music for the first season of Gilligan’s Island.

From 1980 to 1993 he served as the Boston Pops’s principal conductor, and is currently the orchestra’s laureate conductor.

 

Williams has won 24 Grammy Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, five Academy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. With 51 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most-nominated individual, after Walt Disney.

 

Listening:

Star Wars (1977)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Schindler’s List (1993)