John Williams Biography

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JOHN WILLIAMS (Composer) is one of the most esteemed and prolific film composers of all time, and the recipient of numerous honors, including five Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, a British Academy Award, four Emmy Awards and eighteen Grammy Awards. Williams won three of his five Oscars® for his work on the Steven Spielberg films Jaws, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Schindler's List. His other Academy Awards came for the unforgettable Star Wars score and the scoring of the screen version of Fiddler on the Roof.

Williams has also earned a remarkable 43 Oscar nominations-more than any other living person-most recently for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. In 2003, he was nominated for his work for Spielberg's Catch Me if You Can, and in 2002 he received dual nominations for his scores for Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence and the blockbuster Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

A master of every genre, he has created many of the most familiar themes in movie history, including the Oscar-nominated scores for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman and all three of Spielberg's Indiana Jones movies: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Williams' other Academy Award nominations have included Best Original Score nods for The Patriot, Saving Private Ryan, Amistad, Nixon, Sabrina, JFK, Home Alone, Born on the Fourth of July, Empire of the Sun, The River, The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure, to name only a few.

Williams' long association with Spielberg began with the director's first feature, The Sugarland Express, and has encompassed almost all of Spielberg's films, more recently including Minority Report, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and The Terminal. Williams' latest film franchise credits include Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; and Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.

In addition to his feature film work, Williams created official themes for several Olympic games and also wrote an orchestral work to accompany Spielberg's film tribute to the new millennium, American Journey. He has also composed numerous concert pieces, including two symphonies, and a cello concerto premiered by Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1994, as well as concertos for flute, tuba, violin, clarinet, bassoon and trumpet.

Williams was also Music Director of the Boston Pops Orchestra for 14 highly successful seasons from 1980 to 1993. He still holds the title of Laureate Conductor of that famed ensemble, as well as that of Artist in Residence at Tanglewood. As a guest conductor, he appears regularly with many of the world's most renowned orchestras.