Hollywood Bowl stage dedication and the mysterious new Spielberg score

A few notes on what's happening in the world of John Williams *as we speak*

I wasn’t there; the LA Phil was instructed not to invite press. But I was very happy when I saw the news that, on Sunday, November 9, the iconic stage of the Hollywood Bowl was dedicated to John Williams in a private ceremony that featured such heavyweights as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Richard Dreyfuss, Gustavo Dudamel, Alan Silvestri, and friend of this Substack, David Newman!

I’ve written plenty about John’s long history with the Hollywood Bowl, most extensively in an essay last year for The Legacy of John Williams website. (In his write-up for the L.A. Times, reporter Josh Rottenberg linked to that essay, which was very nice.) This was both a no-brainer for the LA Phil, which owns the amphitheater, but also another unbelievable feather in the cap of the “kid from Flushing” (as John once put it to me) who ascended from playing piano at a square nightclub for teens in Van Nuys to being the very face of orchestral music in the 21st century. It’s only right that Hollywood honor its most esteemed composer in this public, visual, symbolic way; John more than deserves to have his name emblazoned on the most popular center of orchestral music in his hometown—Tinseltown—on a stage where he has stood countless times and drawn millions of people to come hear his music. But from a biographical, life story standpoint, this is just one more staggering plot point. (I’ll have to write about it in a future edition of the book!)

As John’s biographer, to see multiple events and episodes unfolding after I finished the book is surreal. First there was the piano concerto. Then the premiere of a new waltz, commissioned to celebrate the 150th birthday of Johann Strauss, Jr., and performed in Vienna in late October. (John told me about this piece while he was working on it; the Vienna Philharmonic was in Los Angeles earlier this year, and some of the players paid John a visit. He asked them how Viennese musicians get that unique swing in their waltzes—and they told him the secret.) Also the premiere of a Serenade for French horn that John wrote a few years ago for his friend, Dale Clevenger, after the death of his wife.

(I’m not sure if or when recordings of these two pieces will be available. I hope it happens. I do know that the piano concerto is being recorded in Boston in January.)

And then there’s that new film score. I was not given permission to share the fact that John is, indeed, scoring Spielberg’s mysterious new film which comes out next summer. But then Juilliard president Damian Woetzel let this enormous cat out of its very secretive bag… right in front of me. I was standing with Nicholas Britell in the wings at Juilliard’s Paul Hall when we heard Woetzel tell the audience—which included a potentially global livestream—that both John and Steven were invited to attend our event (tis true), but the reason they couldn’t was because John was working on Steven’s new film. I knew the internet would explode, and it did. My friend Doug Adams tweeted the news, which then got picked up by Variety and a host of other news outlets and websites.

Now, I’m still not at liberty to share anything in detail—and truthfully, I don’t know very many details myself. I’m not privy to what the film is about or what John’s score sounds like. I wasn’t allowed to attend any of the recording sessions, which have already begun and (I believe) are ongoing.

All I can really share at this point is that John is writing every note himself, and it seems to be quite a substantial score. Yub nub!

We’ll have more and better occasions to celebrate and investigate this still-gestating music, but I just want to acknowledge the wild and miraculous fact that in the year 2025, despite John’s advanced age (he’s almost 94) and recent health challenges, he is nonetheless penning an entire, original score for an original Steven Spielberg film—their 30th feature together, spanning more than 50 years. Not only are we still sharing the planet with John Towner Williams… he’s still giving us new music, and a new Spielberg score to boot!

Did John drink from the Holy Grail in the Canyon of the Crescent Moon?? Whatever the reason or the cause, his presence and continuing contributions are a gift to humanity. And I’m so grateful, and amazed, to be a witness to it. Aren’t you?