John Williams, the Famous Composer Known for ‘Jaws’ and ‘Star Wars,’ Debuts First Piano Concerto at Age 93
The renowned composer has scored many of the most famous films of our time. But until this summer, he had never attempted a concerto for piano
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Nearly 70 years after making his Hollywood debut, the legendary composer and conductor John Williams has a new musical composition to his name.
At age 93, the five-time Oscar winner—best-known for scoring blockbuster franchises such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Jaws and Jurassic Park—has written his first-ever piano concerto.
The piece, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, premiered on July 26 at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home in Lenox, Massachusetts. Acclaimed classical pianist Emanuel Ax, for whom the piece was written, performed it with the orchestra, which was conducted by Andris Nelsons.
Quick fact: John Williams’ prolific composing career
The famous composer’s accolades include three Emmys, four Golden Globes and 26 Grammys.
Ax and Williams met in 1994 at Tanglewood, where they performed Mozart’s Concerto for Three Pianos together with Maria Tipo. In 2022, the pianist learned from a New York Times article that Williams was considering writing a piano concerto. He wrote a letter to the composer asking to be a part of the project, per the Times’ Tim Greiving.
Williams agreed right away. He met with Ax several times as he was finishing the concerto, which runs roughly 20 minutes long.
When he first saw the concerto, “I didn’t know what to expect, so I was generally amazed,” Ax told WCRB’s Brian McCreath ahead of the premiere. “It was wonderful to be able to spend time with this incredible man. He’s, aside from his genius, one could say, he’s also the warmest, kindest, most generous person one can imagine.”
The composition’s three movements offer subtle homages to iconic jazz pianists—Art Tatum, Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson—who were major influences on Williams as a young musician. The Times reports that Williams’ “first serious composition” was a piano sonata he attempted at age 18. But throughout his prolific career, he never wrote a piano concerto until now.
“I just thought it was impossible,” Williams tells the Times. “So much in the history of music, piano, keyboard, digital, fingers—that anyone would be daunted, I think.”
But turning 90 and receiving the letter from an enthusiastic Ax prompted him to think seriously about an attempt.
“At this point in life, you don’t know what kind of energy you’re going to have a year or two from now. I have to live in the present, contribute what little I can and enjoy making music, which is such an important part of human life,” Williams told Symphony’s Simon Woods in 2024. “Human experience would be empty without music.”
This isn’t Williams’ first concerto, though it is his first for the piano. His sprawling library of compositions include concertos for the flute (1969), tuba (1985), clarinet (1991), cello (1994), trumpet (1996), horn (2003), viola (2009) and oboe (2011).
But most fans know Williams for his blockbuster movie scores. In addition to scoring several well-known franchises, he also wrote music for famous films such as Schindler’s List, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, Saving Private Ryan and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
In early 2026, the concerto will be performed again by the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
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