The Music of John Williams: Serious, Popcorn...or Maybe Both?

Composer John Williams—now 93, with a career that spans nearly 70 years and hit after Oscar-nominated hit—is beloved by mainstream audiences and movie lovers, but has typically received a side-eye from academia and the upper echelons of classical music. That divide, and Williams’ creative attempts to bridge it, is one of the themes in the artist’s first biography, John Williams: A Composer’s Life. Author Tim Greiving will discuss this tension, and Williams’ own conflicted attitude and feelings about it, along with many other stories from his new book—as well as the wild story behind the book—in this revelatory and entertaining conversation hosted by composer, Roosevelt alumnus, and fellow film music historian Doug Adams.