Composer John Williams has strong connections to Milwaukee
John Williams may be most famous for composing music for the “Star Wars” films. But he also has strong connections to that portion of the galaxy we call Milwaukee.
For starters, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra music director Ken-David Masur claims Williams as a mentor and friend, going back to their time together at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops.
Masur will conduct the MSO May 3-5 in a program of Williams’ movie music. In between selections, the MSO will screen video of an exclusive interview and conversation Masur had with the 92-year-old composer earlier this year at Amblin Entertainment Studios in California.
The MSO says there is limited ticket availability for the May 3-5 concerts. Visit mso.org or call (414) 291-7605.
Here’s a look at Williams’ close encounters with Milwaukee.
Williams and Masur have conducted concerts together
In 2022 and 2023, Masur and Williams co-conducted celebratory concerts of the composer’s music with the New York Philharmonic and with Boston Pops at Tanglewood. The duo are scheduled to lead two more nights of music together in August at Tanglewood.
But their personal relationship goes back decades, to when Masur was in a high school summer composition program at Tanglewood. One quiet afternoon, the teenage Masur was walking down a staircase; the person he met walking up the stairs was John Williams. The young Masur gushed about a recent concert of the composer’s music, but Williams turned the conversation around with questions about what Masur was studying.
From that point on, through Masur’s later tenure as assistant conductor of Boston Symphony Orchestra, they had many “wonderful conversations” about music, Masur said. Williams would sometimes come to Masur’s rehearsals.
Masur remembers rehearsing music by Williams with the composer present. Later, with the deferential tone of an assistant conductor, Williams would speak to Masur: May I suggest something? “Please, this is your music,” Masur replied, laughing as he recalled the incident.
Williams was going to open Milwaukee’s new concert hall but …
In February 2020, the Milwaukee Symphony announced that John Williams would conduct the first paid, ticketed concert in the Bradley Symphony Center, the orchestra’s new home, by sharing the podium for an Oct. 10, 2020, concert of his music with Masur.
Alas, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic here in March 2020 made that announced concert one of the city’s big cultural losses of the lockdown period.
How would the two conductors have shared the workload? “Nothing should follow John Williams,” Masur said in 2020. “I’m happy to go first.”
Williams conducted the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra once
Williams did conduct a program of his music here with the MSO in October 2014. The sold-out concert included well-known excerpts from his scores for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Star Wars” and “E.T. The ExtraTerrestrial,” as well as less familiar music, such as his Coplandesque overture from “The Cowboys” (1972).
He said then that his touring Pops programs were his way of supporting orchestras and musicians that have brought his scores to life.
“I feel a great debt to these orchestras,” he said during a telephone interview.
“Most of the orchestras have fiscal challenges. I feel it is a privilege for me to help in a small way.”
MSO conductor Ryan Tani has a Williams connection, too
Masur is not the only Milwaukee conductor with a strong affinity for Williams’ music.
Earlier this season, assistant conductor Ryan Tani led family and education concerts that included the title music from “Star Wars,” prompting a reflection about a favorite gift from his childhood.
When he was 14, for Christmas his parents gave him the John Williams Signature Edition “Star Wars” orchestral score — published by Milwaukeebased Hal Leonard Corp.
Milwaukee’s Hal Leonard has long been Williams’ music publisher
In his 2014 phone interview before coming to Milwaukee to conduct the MSO, Williams said he had a second motive for wanting to visit our city. Milwaukee’s Hal Leonard is his longtime music publisher.
“I’ve been working with them for decades,” Williams said. “Part of my wanting to come to Milwaukee is to meet them and shake hands with them.”
Hal Leonard first published a Williams composition, Flying Theme from “E.T.,” in 1985. In 1993 he started working directly with Williams on Signature Editions of his music. Hal Leonard now sells 863 Williams books and scores in print and digital formats.
The company’s bestselling Williams item is the “Star Wars Collection for Beginning Piano.” “We hear from piano teachers all the time that his music is a major motivator for piano students!,” Hal Leonard vice president of marketing communications Trish Dulka wrote in an email message.
Williams “is passionately interested in making his musical scores widely available for schools, teachers, and students, so that through his music, millions of musicians can experience the joy of discovering the power of music in their own lives,” said Hal Leonard chairman Larry Morton in an email message.
“He is personally involved in every detail of our publications, which is a unique trait compared to most of the top composers we represent,” Morton said.