On John Williams

I just had a remarkable and unexpectedly moving two days playing the music of John Williams with John Williams conducting.  This is a concert I was really excited about since it was announced last year. It seems the community was just as excited because the concert sold out in 4 hours.  Just days before the concert, they added a few more rows of chairs right in front of the stage and those seats sold out in 10 minutes!!

Now I knew that I was going to love this concert, but I had no idea how moving it would ultimately be for me. While playing music from Harry Potter during the concert I was thinking to myself, “You are playing Harry Potter excerpts with the composer on the podium.  You are so lucky! Not many people in the world get that opportunity.”  And all of this music is music that billions of people in the world know and love!  But only a small percentage of those people get to play it with the composer.  Crazy.

Looking out into the audience was a fascinating visualization of the impact that John Williams has on the world today.  The audience was made up of people of every age group, gender, race, everything.  It made me really take stock in what JW has done.  Each decade’s children have a movie with a JW score that changed their lives.  In the 70’s, my decade, we had Star Wars.  The kids in the 80’s had E.T. The 90’s gave us Jurassic Park, and the early 2000’s gave us the Harry Potter films.  And this doesn’t even cover the movies that aren’t necessarily “kids” movies.  Movies like Schindler’s List, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I could go on and on. These films had a tangible impact on everyone who’s seen them whether they are aware of it or not.  But I truly believe that his music is paramount to the success of these films.  His music, more than most, truly shows the emotional effect that music has on each and every one of us.  In fact, you could say he is arguably the most successful composer in history.

And if that weren’t enough, he is warm, friendly, humble, and a true gentleman.  I got the feeling over those two days that he really gets such a thrill out of hearing his music performed, and not just because of what it means for him, but knowing that we are enjoying it just as much! After the rehearsal, a number of musicians went back to say hello, or get a picture or to have something signed.  We all lined the hallway outside his dressing room!  As we waited, there was a group of people from the Hall Leonard Corporation, his publisher, who were lead through into the dressing room across the hall from his.  JW came out of his dressing room and went into meet with them.  I was standing just outside the door and could watch the whole experience.  He spoke to each and every person in that room!  He took pictures, he signed autographs on paper, on music, on CD’s. But what really spoke to me was that he talked to each and every person, and I mean really talked.  Genuinely interested in everyone he never seemed rushed to go on to the next person.  When he had seen all of those people he came out into the hall and did exactly the same thing with all of us!  Rehearsal had been over almost an hour at this point.

I know it may seem weird, but I was rather emotional in the car on the way home and it hit me, this was one of the highlights of my musical career.  And whenever I question the impact we as musicians have on the world, I will think back on these two days and know that we make a difference,  A real and profound difference on everyone’s lives.