{"id":371876,"date":"2025-11-11T16:16:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T16:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/371876\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T16:16:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T16:16:12","slug":"hollywood-bowl-names-stage-after-legendary-composer-john-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/371876\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood Bowl names stage after legendary composer John Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For generations of Angelenos, summer at the Hollywood Bowl meant John Williams on the podium, lightsabers glowing in the crowd as he led the Los Angeles Philharmonic through \u201cStar Wars,\u201d \u201cE.T.\u201d and \u201cIndiana Jones.\u201d Now 93, with his baton mostly set aside, Williams still looms over the Bowl each summer, his music echoing through the amphitheater, played by the orchestra he helped make synonymous with Hollywood.<\/p>\n

That bond has been made official.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Philharmonic will announce Tuesday that it is naming the venue\u2019s stage for Williams \u2014 the first time in the Bowl\u2019s 103-year history that its stage has been dedicated to an artist.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine a more fitting choice. Few composers have left a deeper imprint on Hollywood<\/a>, or on the collective imagination of the people who fill the Bowl\u2019s seats. Williams\u2019 five Academy Awards and 54 nominations<\/a> (a count second only to Walt Disney himself) span a career that has defined blockbuster cinema. His work with George Lucas on \u201cStar Wars\u201d created what may be the most recognizable movie theme ever written. Over 29 films and nearly half a century, Williams\u2019 collaboration with Steven Spielberg<\/a> has produced the scores for \u201cJaws,\u201d \u201cE.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,\u201d \u201cRaiders of the Lost Ark,\u201d \u201cJurassic Park\u201d and \u201cSchindler\u2019s List.\u201d <\/p>\n

The honor was celebrated Sunday morning in a private ceremony at the Bowl attended by Williams, Spielberg, Lucas and L.A. Phil music and artistic director Gustavo Dudamel. The orchestra\u2019s brass ensemble performed the composer\u2019s \u201cMusic for Brass,\u201d violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and pianist Joanne Pearce Martin played his \u201cTheme from Sabrina,\u201d and speakers reflected on Williams\u2019 six-decade partnership with the orchestra and the Bowl. A short tribute video chronicled his influence across generations of musicians and audiences worldwide.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

John Williams, conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in 2013.<\/p>\n

(Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Addressing the crowd at Sunday\u2019s event, Dudamel recalled first hearing Williams\u2019 music as a boy in Venezuela, going to see films like \u201cStar Wars\u201d and \u201cJurassic Park\u201d again and again just to listen to the scores. Years later, he said, when he met Williams at 24, he finally understood the connection between the composer\u2019s music and his character: \u201cThe generosity I heard in the music was the generosity of the man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking on behalf of the Philharmonic, Dudamel called it a privilege to honor the composer who has guided and inspired generations of musicians. \u201cToday this wonderful relationship becomes eternal,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is your stage, John, and it has been for these 46 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams first took the Bowl podium in 1978, stepping in on short notice for ailing house conductor Arthur Fiedler while on a break from scoring \u201cSuperman,\u201d according to journalist Tim Greiving<\/a>, author of a recent Williams biography. That single appearance evolved into a summer tradition that lasted decades, with sold-out weekends that drew nearly 18,000 people a night and helped make orchestral film music central to the Bowl\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n

His summer concerts became civic rituals: families picnicking, fans waving lightsabers in time to \u201cThe Imperial March\u201d and Williams emerging each night to ovations more often reserved for rock stars. In 2023, during one of his final appearances, he even sparred playfully onstage with Dudamel in a mock lightsaber duel that brought the audience to its feet.<\/p>\n

In a statement accompanying the announcement, Spielberg paid tribute to Williams\u2019 transformative influence on film, saying, \u201cWithout John Williams, bikes don\u2019t really fly, nor do brooms in Quidditch matches, nor do men in red capes. There is no Force, dinosaurs do not walk the Earth. We do not wonder, we do not weep, we do not believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philanthropic support for the dedication came from friends and collaborators, including Spielberg and Kate Capshaw\u2019s Hearthland Foundation, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, Seth MacFarlane and the Katie McGrath and J.J. Abrams Family Foundation.<\/p>\n

At Sunday\u2019s ceremony, Williams expressed gratitude for a recognition that, he said, went beyond anything he could have imagined when he first stood on the Bowl stage nearly half a century ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an honor that is unprecedented and unequaled in generosity shown by the Los Angeles Philharmonic family \u2014 my family \u2014 in making this dedication,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to thank all of the donors in this effort, who proudly support and salute the work done by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, one of the great orchestras of the world. The uniqueness of this honor is certainly unheard of, and I thank all of you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For generations of Angelenos, summer at the Hollywood Bowl meant John Williams on the podium, lightsabers glowing in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":371877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[11149,1582,276,179148,179146,1020,46267,2961,179147,224,108158,5337,975,106006,9221,14398,2407,1176,8054,2612],"class_list":{"0":"post-371876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-bowl","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-dudamel","12":"tag-few-composer","13":"tag-film","14":"tag-generation","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-legendary-composer-john-williams","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-los-angeles-philharmonic","19":"tag-losangeles","20":"tag-music","21":"tag-orchestra","22":"tag-stage","23":"tag-star-wars","24":"tag-steven-spielberg","25":"tag-summer","26":"tag-sunday-morning","27":"tag-williams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}