He was so kind, and over the years it was a tremendous fortune and joy to be able to share the stage with him as well as simply witness his great spirit and continuing output of both tremendous film scores and wonderful concert music. I told him that I was studying to compose and admired his music, and he asked me what I was writing.

In high school, I was fortunate to be a student of composition at Tanglewood and had a mesmerizing encounter with John, passing him on the staircase at the old building known as Highwood. After witnessing the premiere of ‘The Five Sacred Trees’ bassoon concerto in New York with John present, I felt that he wasn’t just like the Wizard of Oz creating film music magic behind a curtain, but that he was a living and constantly curiously creating composer. It’s a great joy to conduct this music which is grand, sweeping, full of energy, looking up, searching. If I think back, I perhaps didn’t really notice the music, per se, just that the emotions it left me with were so deep. The film stayed in my imagination for a long time, probably because when I saw it, I was a similar age to the protagonist Elliott. It was the first movie with John’s music that I remember watching in the movie theatre, as a child living in East Germany. However one at the top is probably the music to ‘E.T.’ That may be for several reasons. “There are many John Williams scores that resonate with me, as you can imagine. He is a true artist that has given so much to the world of music.”

It evokes emotion and feeling and physical sensations. His film music does what music is meant to do. His music is moving and is so multi-faceted, and playing for him has been a highlight in my Philharmonic career. John Williams is a consummate professional who shows the utmost respect to musicians. Hearing that score at such an impressionable age made a huge impact on me as the music evoked so much emotion as I sat there engrossed in the film. I was a teenager at the time and I already knew that I wanted to spend my life making music. “My favorite John Williams score will always be ‘E.T.’ It was the first movie that I ever saw in a movie theatre. With all the instruments we percussionists each have to play, and with the music/tempi going by so quickly, there is this visceral sense that you are side-by-side with the protagonist also trying to run away from the bad guys!” I also enjoy playing ‘chase scenes,’ which seem to happen often in the movies that Williams composes for. He has such a deep understanding of how to get the best out of each instrument group. Because of this, every sound we make of his is very satisfying because it fits in so well with the other instruments, as well as what is happening on the screen. And the final scene, where Catherine O’Hara and Macaulay Culkin’s characters reunite, with Williams’s ‘Somewhere in My Memory’ in the background it still gets me every time I watch!Īs a percussionist, I always appreciate John Williams’s perfect use of the wide array of percussion instruments that there are. And experiencing this movie in that unique way was kind of an out-of-body moment for me. So I was thrilled to play the movie score with film 20-plus years later with the New York Philharmonic. It was one of my favorite movies growing up, especially watching during every holiday season. “The first movie I saw in theaters with my family was ‘Home Alone,’ when I was a small child. Kyle Zerna, Percussion & Assistant Principal Timpani It made me appreciate the importance of the film score more than I ever had before. Now, I do a lot of film score work outside of the Philharmonic and, of course, have seen my fair share of movies, but even I have to admit how powerful this demonstration was. The clip was replayed, this time with us providing the music. He explained what kind of music cues were needed as Indy jumped off a cliff, landed on his horse, and rode away.

At one point during the evening, Spielberg talked the audience through a short movie clip from ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ without the music. The Philharmonic once played a fundraiser with John conducting and Steven Spielberg as the guest of honor. The melodies are quite literally unforgettable and there are so many of them! He is able to elicit an incredible variety of deep emotions in every score. To my mind, there is no other composer that provides that experience better – or more frequently – than John Williams.

“By a long shot, my favorite music is the kind that leaves me humming its tunes long after the concert, movie, or recording is over.

John william composer