John Williams (b. 1932): Star Wars

Born in New York, John Williams studied with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco in California and at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. After playing piano in the 20th Century Fox Studio Orchestra, he began his career as composer of film music. After the death of Arthur Fiedler in 1979, Williams was appointed conductor and music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra, a post he retained until 1993. He is now Boston Pops laureate conductor, as well as artist-in-residence at Tanglewood.

Williams has composed the music and served as a music director for more than one hundred films, including Harry Potter, Saving Private Ryan, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws,  Superman, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Jurassic Park. He has been nominated for the Academy Award 50 times, and has won five of them. In 2009 he composed and arranged Air and Simple Gifts for the first inaugural ceremony of President Barack Obama.

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, an incredible adventure took place…” So begins George Lucas's Star Wars, the first in a trilogy of films to be followed by The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Starring Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Alec Guinness as Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the voice of James Earl Jones as Darth Vader, Star Wars opened in 1977 and became one of the biggest box-office successes of all time. It won seven Oscars, including one for John Williams's score.

Program Notes by Charley Samson, copyright 2022.