Take a Bow, John Williams

Take a Bow, John Williams Lockhart Reflects on Composer’s Legacy

efore there was Keith Lockhart, there was John Williams. And this year, Williams’s successor at the Boston Pops has been busy Since April, the Pops have held several concerts at Boston Symphony Hall to honor Williams, including separate performances of “E.T.” and “Jaws” as part of live screenings of B Williams passes the baton to Lockhart in 1995. PHOTO BY MIRO VINTONIV conducting a celebration of the legendary film composer’s the two Spielberg films. The Pops also released a CD featuring works to commemorate his 85th birthday. a selection of several Williams classics and rarities it performed

“There’s not a better known composer on the planet. over two days this past spring. There is a connection with his music and some of the most This year’s Pops by the Sea will be a continuation of that theme, popular films of all time,” said Lockhart, who was handed exposing Cape Cod audiences to the best that Williams has to offer. the conductor’s baton for the Boston Pops in 1995 when This will include the familiar “Jaws” theme which has a he succeeded Williams, who served in that capacity from close connection to Cape Cod, having been filmed on Martha’s 1980 to 1993. Vineyard. “That score is a model for how to make a suspense

While Williams still maintains a connection with the Pops film,” Lockhart said. “That music makes an ordinary movie as its laureate conductor, he is best known for his influence on extraordinarily nail-biting.” cinema, scoring such popular movies as the “Star Wars” series, And with the country’s foremost shark expect, Dr. Gregory the first two “Jurassic Park” films, the Indiana Jones series, Skomal, serving as this year’s guest conductor, that film and its “E.T.”, and the first three “Harry Potter” films. He has worked familiar “duh-dun, duh-dun, duh-dun” chord will be particularly alongside such Hollywood heavyweights as Steven Spielberg, significant for the 32nd Annual Pops by the Sea. George Lucas, Oliver Stone, and Ron Howard. And he has It’s a concert that serves as another opportunity for Lockhart been nominated for 50 Academy Awards – second only to Walt to pay tribute to someone he has deep affection for. “It is great Disney’s 59 – winning five of them. to be in a position to honor someone like John Williams whose

“His movies date back to the 1950s,” Lockhart noted. “In the contributions are that significant,” Lockhart said. “What a great nine decades that movies have had sound, he has films in seven chance we have to say, ‘Thank you’ while he is still here to take a bow.” of those decades. That’s incredible to think about.”