The Legacy of John Williams Podcast

An overview and a personal commentary on the historical 30th feature film collaboration between Steven Spielberg and John Williams
Hosted by Maurizio Caschetto
The collaboration between director Steven Spielberg and composer John Williams has been staple of modern cinema for more than fifty years. Disclosure Day is the 30th feature film collaboration between Spielberg and Williams. It’s also the first science-fiction film they’re doing since War of the Worlds (2005), a genre in which they’ve done some of their best and most cherished work. It’s also a return to themes and motifs at the basis of two of Spielberg’s most personal and successful films, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Beyond the fact that this project would’ve marked a nice round number of film collaborations, both Spielberg and Williams knew that this could’ve also been an ideal round-up, or summation, of their best work in the genre.

Editor Maurizio Caschetto offers a personal commentary about what makes the 30th – and possibly final – collaboration between Steven Spielberg and John Williams a moving statement about who they are and what they believe in as artists, reflecting on decades of awe, wonder and magic created by this unparalled duo.

Read more at https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2026/08/07/soundtrack-spotlight-disclosure-day/

GRAMMY-winning violinist talks about her life as a musician and her deep love for John Williams’ music, sharing memories of performing with and for the maestro. 
Anne Akiko Meyers stands among the most influential violinists of our times. A GRAMMY® Award-winning artist with four decades of international acclaim, Meyers is a defining force in the field of contemporary music and has helped reshape the modern violin repertoire. She has been called “the Wonder Woman of commissioning” for her enduring commitment to playing and commissioning music by some of the most important composers of the last half century, including Arvo Pärt, Einojuhani Rautavaara, John Corigliano, Arturo Márquez, Philip Glass, Michael Daugherty, Mason Bates Morten Lauridsen, Wynton Marsalis, Somei Satoh, and Eric Whitacre.

Anne Akiko Meyers is a huge admirer of John Williams since her youth. At age 19, she performed Camille Saint-Saëns's "Introduction and Rondò Capriccioso" at Boston's Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by Williams. In 2018, she performed Williams’s “Theme from Schindler’s List” with David Newman and The American Youth Symphony to honor the composer, when he received a Trustees Award during a gala concert celebrating the Recording Academy’s 2018 GRAMMY Salute To Music Legends. Meyers was part of another recent pivotal moment in Williams’ life, when in November 2025 the Los Angeles Philharmonic announced to name the stage of the renowned Hollywood Bowl after the composer.

In this in-depth conversation, Meyers talks about her career in music and her mission to perform new music by living composers; she offers reflections on Barber's Violin Concerto, which is one of her favourite pieces to perform; she also shares stories and memories of performing with and for John Williams on several occasions, while professing her deep love for the music of the maestro.

Read more at https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2026/03/27/legacy-conversations-anne-akiko-meyers/

Hosted and Curated by Maurizio Caschetto
On February 8, John Williams turns 94. It’s always very exciting to celebrate our beloved Maestro for his birthday and this year The Legacy of John Williams has prepared a gigantic tribute in the form of a 2-part podcast special that will hopefully engage and entertain you for a whole weekend of John Williams-themed festivities.

The special is titled Words and Music by John Williams and that’s what you’re going to experience: over the course of two episodes you’ll hear a hefty selection of pieces from John Williams’s immense catalogue interjected with quotes from the Maestro himself, continuing a tradition that The Legacy of John Williams started since its early days. During the course of several decades, John Williams gave countless interviews to the press, sharing his wisdom, knowledge and also his wit on many occasions, illustrating his working process, elaborating on his ideas on music and reflecting on his incredible life journey. John Williams’ words are often as inspiring as his music and his thoughts and ideas speak more eloquently than any commentary one could put together.

The selection you’ll be listening to in this 2-part special contains a wide variety of compositions by Maestro Williams for both film and the concert hall. It has been assembled to avoid the usual greatest hits collection that you can easily find elsewhere, but mostly to offer a broad look at the Maestro’s oeuvre and casting a spotlight on his chamelon-like ability in writing in many different styles while always sounding unmistakeably like himself. It’s not meant to be a chronological overview nor it has pretensions of being exhaustive. It’s curated to create a flowing and emotional musical journey: Take it as a sort of personal playlist that The Legacy of John Williams is sharing with all of you.

Part 1 is available here.

The full track listing available at https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2026/02/06/john-williams-birthday-special/

Hosted and Curated by Maurizio Caschetto
On February 8, John Williams turns 94. It’s always very exciting to celebrate our beloved Maestro for his birthday and this year The Legacy of John Williams has prepared a gigantic tribute in the form of a 2-part podcast special that will hopefully engage and entertain you for a whole weekend of John Williams-themed festivities.

The special is titled Words and Music by John Williams and that’s what you’re going to experience: over the course of two episodes you’ll hear a hefty selection of pieces from John Williams’s immense catalogue interjected with quotes from the Maestro himself, continuing a tradition that The Legacy of John Williams started since its early days. During the course of several decades, John Williams gave countless interviews to the press, sharing his wisdom, knowledge and also his wit on many occasions, illustrating his working process, elaborating on his ideas on music and reflecting on his incredible life journey. John Williams’ words are often as inspiring as his music and his thoughts and ideas speak more eloquently than any commentary one could put together.

The selection you’ll be listening to in this 2-part special contains a wide variety of compositions by Maestro Williams for both film and the concert hall. It has been assembled to avoid the usual greatest hits collection that you can easily find elsewhere, but mostly to offer a broad look at the Maestro’s oeuvre and casting a spotlight on his chamelon-like ability in writing in many different styles while always sounding unmistakeably like himself. It’s not meant to be a chronological overview nor it has pretensions of being exhaustive. It’s curated to create a flowing and emotional musical journey: Take it as a sort of personal playlist that The Legacy of John Williams is sharing with all of you.

Part 2 will be available from February 8, 2026.

The full track listing available at https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2026/02/06/john-williams-birthday-special/

The author of John Williams’ biography returns together with two other film music writers to talk more about the composer’s extraordinary life
With Tim Greiving, Doug Adams, Frank Lehman
Hosted by Maurizio Caschetto
Tim Greiving‘s John Williams – A Composer’s Life, the first major biography on the esteemed American composer and conductor, was released in September by Oxford University Press and has quickly become a reference point for the ongoing studies of Williams’ opus.

Now that the book is out and many fans read it, Tim Greiving returns on The Legacy of John Williams podcast to offer more reflections on his “adventure on Earth,” meeting his idol and spending time with him to tell the incredible story of his life. Joining Tim are two luminaries who also wrote seminal books and papers on the subject of film music and also very welcome returning guests on the show: film music theorist Frank Lehman (author of Hollywood Harmony and the upcoming The Skywalker Symphonies: Musical Storytelling in Star Wars) and writer Doug Adams (author of The Music of The Lord of the Rings Films). In this conversation, the trio of writers engage in a lively talk, commenting on how John Williams’ life story seeped into his own music for both film and concert hall, what it means to meet your heroes and engage with them in conversation and the challenge of writing a biography of a composer who is still contributing new music as we speak.

For more information and the list of musical excerpts, visit https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2025/11/17/legacy-roundtable-jw-biography/