John Williams

In honour of Throwback Thursday, our musician of the week is John Towner Williams, who’s 88 years old and lives in LA, California. You’d probably know many of the mainstream 70s-90s artists, so I chose someone more “behind the scenes” whom you might not know. He’s famous for writing music to many movies including: Star Wars Episodes I-IX, Jaws, Superman, 4 Indiana Jones films, ET, Home Alone, Schindler’s List, Jurassic Park, first 3 Harry Potter films, Memoir of a Geisha (watch this beautiful performance with Yo-Yo Ma, and the scoring process), and many more. You’ve probably watched or heard of most of the films mentioned, but TALK TO YOUR PARENTS about watching Schindler’s List together or when you get older (rated R). It’s an important film about how one man saved hundreds of Jews during WWII. I cried in class when we watched it in grade 12 History after learning about WWII (the music is so powerful I’m tearing up just listening to the music now). 😭 We also discussed the power of music in film with the intermediate grades.

George Gershwin

Our musician of the week is George Gershwin. We listened to the beginning of Rhapsody in Blue in class yesterday. If you have time, listen to the full performance by Leonard Berstein and the NY Philharmonic. We also listened to other jazz standards Gershwin wrote:

1) I Got Rhythm, lyrics written by George’s sister, Ira Gershwin
2) Summertime, with Louis Armstrong on trumpet & vocal (“What a Wonderful World“), and Ella Fitzgerald on vocal (“A Tisket A Tasket“)
You’ll probably hear these songs at some point in your life…they’re pretty famous! Now you’ll know who composed them! 👍