John Williams

Conductor
In a career spanning more than six decades, John Williams has become one of America’s most accomplished and successful composers for film and the concert stage. He remains one of our nation’s most distinguished and contributive musical voices. He has composed the music for more than 100 films, including all nine Star Wars films, the first three Harry Potter films, Schindler’s List, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Lincoln, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman and the Indiana Jones films. He served as music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra for 14 seasons and remains their Laureate Conductor. He has composed numerous works for the concert stage including two symphonies and more than a dozen concertos commissioned by some of America’s most prominent orchestras. He has received five Academy Awards and 53 Oscar nominations, seven British Academy Awards, 25 Grammys, four Golden Globes, and five Emmys. His other honors include the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Arts, an honorary KBE from Queen Elizabeth II, the Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute, Spain’s Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts, and the Gold Medal from the UK’s prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society.

Stéphane Denève

Conductor
Stéphane Denève is music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, artistic director of the New World Symphony, and from the 2023/24 season will also be principal guest conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. He was formerly principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, music director of the Brussels Philharmonic, chief conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR), and music director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
Renowned for the quality of his performances and programming, Mr. Denève regularly appears at major concert venues with the world’s greatest orchestras and soloists. He has a special anity for the music of his native France, and is an advocate for 21st-century music.
Mr. Denève frequently appears with leading North American orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and NSO Washington (with whom he conducted John Williams’s 90th Birthday Gala in 2022). Further aeld, his recent highlights have included appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (with whom he was invited to conduct the 2020 Nobel Prize concert), Orchestre National de France, Czech Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Wiener Symphoniker, DSO Berlin, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.
A gifted communicator and educator, Mr. Denève is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians and listeners. In addition to his position with the New World Symphony, he has been invited on many occasions to share his experience and expertise with young orchestral musicians, including at the Colburn School, Tanglewood Music Center, European Union Youth Orchestra, and Music Academy of the West.