John Towner Williams Artist Profile

1. John Towner WilliamsArtist Profile

2. John Towner WilliamsWhere You Might Have Heard His Music • All six Star Wars films • E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial • Jaws • Indiana Jones • Harry Potter • Dreamworks Pictures • NBC Nightly News • 1982 Los Angeles Olympics, 1988 Seol Olympics, 1996 Atlanta Olympics, 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics

3. The only man to garner more Academy Award nominations than John Williams is Walt Disney. • 45 Academy Awards (Oscar) nominations, 5 wins • 19 Golden Globe nominations, 4 wins • 59 Grammy nominations, 18 wins (Motion picture and non motion picture work alike)

4. John Towner WilliamsFrom Birth Through Teens • The Year: 1932 The Date: February 8 • The Place: Long Island, New York U.S.A. He was born to a jazz musician, oddly enough named Johnny Williams. He spent the first 16 years of his life living in New York, before moving with his family to Los Angeles in 1948

5. At the age of 19, while a student at U.C.L.A., he successfully premiered his first piece, a piano sonata. While living in L.A., he studied music orchestration under MGM Studios music associate Robert Van Eps.

6. He served his country, serving in the United States Air Force. • While serving, he was able to conduct an orchestra for the first time.

7. John Towner WilliamsHis Early Career • After his Air Force service, he returned to New York to attend Julliard. • While there, he worked as a jazz musician at clubs to pay his way. • His instructor at Julliard, Madame RhosinaLhevinne urged him to focus on conducting. • Taking her advice, he moved back to Los Angeles and began working in the movie industry, making very important friends along the way.

8. Married Barbra Ruick on April 15, 1956 • They had three children: A daughter who grew up to become a doctor and two sons who both became rock performers. • His son Joseph was the lead singer for the band Toto.

9. He began working on scores for television shows, earning himself two Emmy’s. • Landing the job scoring the motion picture The Reiversled to two momentous events in his life • He got the job adapting the score for Fiddler on the Roof, earning him his first Oscar. • It caught the attention of up and coming filmmaker Steven Spielberg. • Spielberg hired him to work on his first picture, The Sugarland Express. That led to the two teaming up again for a little film called Jaws.

10. His partnership with Spielberg, led to an introduction to another up and coming filmmaker: George Lucas • Together, they made the epic motion picture, Star Wars. • When Spielberg and Lucas began working on a film patterned after the Saturday morning serials, the only man they could think of for the job of scoring Indiana Jones was John Williams.

11. John Towner WilliamsHis Later Career • John worked outside of motion pictures as well, writing concert pieces for performers like Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma. • He became the 19th conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1980. • After his retirement in 1992, he was elected the Boston Pops Conductor Laureate.

12. Inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 1998 • Recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004 • Awarded American National Medal of the Arts on February 25, 2010 at the White House

13. Steven Spielberg once said, “I’ve always felt that John Williams was my musical rewrite artist. He comes in, sees my movie, rewrites the whole thing musically, and makes it much better than I did. He can take a moment and just uplift it. He can take a tear that’s just forming in your eye and he can cause it to drip.”

14. John Towner WilliamsAcademy Award Wins • Fiddler on the Roof (1971) • Jaws (1975) • Star Wars (1977) • E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982) • Schindler’s List (1993)

15. John Towner WilliamsListening Guide: E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial • John Williams accepted the job offer from Steven Spielberg with the description of the movie: “It’s about a boy who finds an alien, and gradually starts to bond with him.” • While scoring the film, several key elements from the movie were incomplete, such as the scene where Elliot and E.T. fly in front of the moon.

16. After getting stuck on the ending, John asked Spielberg over to his house for help. Spielberg told him to “Forget the movie, and conduct it like a concert.” • Taking this advice, he wrote such a rousing score, that Spielberg re-edited the ending to fit the music that John Williams wrote.

17. Williams effectively uses the string section to allow the piece to be playful at times, mimicking the fun that Elliot and E.T. have together. • The horns and percussion are used to dramatically bring home a point; E.T. flying, the rest of his kind coming back to get him, their flying back to their homeworld.

18. John Towner WilliamsListening Guide: Olympic Fanfare and Theme • When the organizers of the XXIII Olympiad in Los Angeles needed someone to write a theme for their Games and medal ceremonies, they looked to L.A. native John Williams. • John Williams wanted to write a piece that musically represented “The spirit of cooperation, and heroic achievement…” • He succeeded so well, that his Theme has become the Olympic Theme for 30+ years.

19. Employing the piece “Bugler’s Dream” into his own work, he was able to blend a song that had been used since the 1968 Grenoble Games, into a song that would be used for the next 30+ years to represent the Olympics. • Strong bells were added to empower the horns.

20. John Towner WilliamsListening Guide: The Raider’s March • Steven Spielberg and George Lucas wanted to make a James Bond type character that was like the Saturday morning serials they watched as kids. They needed a rousing score to punctuate their new hero, and John Williams was the only man they felt could do it. • Director Steven Spielberg said, “Sure, the whip, the hat, the jacket are part of the Indiana Jones iconography. But what really gives Indy his heart and spirit is John Williams’ music.”

21. John Williams initially had trouble with the score for the film, but eventually he realized that the score needed to be straightforward piece, hitting you hard and fast, and without a lot of fluff. Just like the movies star: Indiana Jones.

22. John Towner WilliamsBibliagrophy • www.johnwilliams.org • www.imdb.com • www.filmtracks.com • Liner notes from the 20th Anniversary release of E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial soundtrack • Liner notes from the Raiders of the Lost Ark soundtrack