John Williams

John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist born on February 8, 1932 in New York.

He is best known for his film scores. He brought about a renewal of symphonic original scores with what remains his most famous work: the music for the Star Wars saga. Composer for Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, John Williams has composed, over a career spanning more than sixty years, a large number of the most famous film scores in Hollywood history, including, besides Star Wars, Jaws, Home Alone, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Superman, Schindler's List, and the first three Harry Potter films. He also composed the music for four Olympic Games, NBC Nightly News, the inauguration ceremony of President Barack Obama, and numerous television series.

Williams has won the Academy Award for Best Original Score five times, as well as 4 Golden Globes, 7 BAFTA Awards, and 21 Grammy Awards. With 54 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the most-nominated film music composer in history. Historically, only Walt Disney has done better with 59 nominations. John Williams was also inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2000 and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.

Williams has also composed numerous classical music works commissioned by major orchestras. For example, a Horn Concerto for Dale Clevenger and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a Cello Concerto for Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a Bassoon Concerto for the 150th anniversary of the New York Philharmonic, and so on. He himself served as Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra from 1980 to 1993.

His compositional talent, orchestration and musicianship, his longevity, the popularity and influence of his works, as well as his numerous awards and honors, lead most film and music experts worldwide to consider John Williams the greatest film music composer of all time.