Musicfest U:

Dive deeper into your favorite music through Lectures on Music, lead by local scholars and Musicfest staff!

John Williams iconic scores for major motion pictures have been the standard for film writing for more than 50 years. In celebration of the great American Maestro’s 90th birthday, join film composer and professor Dr. Christopher Norby for a four-part series exploring the inner workings of film music through John Williams’ film scores.

Through this series, we’ll explore the influence of jazz on John Williams’s melodic and harmonic approaches, his leitmotif-like use of themes and motives for storytelling, his expansive orchestrational technique, and how his great shadow has influenced film music over the last half-century. Dr. Norby will share from his experience composing for films and studying manuscripts of Williams’ scores to unveil how Williams’ music exemplifies the magic of film scoring.

John Williams presents themes for E.T. to Steven Spielberg

John Williams conducts E.T. – Adventures on Earth