Mark Graham is Hollywood’s first-call “music prep man” and a name trusted by the entire community when it comes to the preparation and the recording of film scores, having worked as orchestrator, conductor, head of music prep, librarian and copyist on literally thousands of film and television projects. The head of music preparation is one of the most important member of the team that creates a film soundtrack and, together with the music editor, is often the composer’s right-hand person. He started to collaborate with John Williams in the late 1990s as part of the music prep team, taking the mantle from Williams' longtime trusted music preparator and librarian JoAnn Kane (who founded JoAnn Kane Music Service in the mid-1980s, the leading music preparation company for virtually the whole industry). Graham inherited JoAnn Kane Music Service and became the owner of the company, becoming Williams’ right-hand man for music preparation of all of his works. During all these years, Mark collaborated very closely with Williams in a key position, seeing first hand his working method and becoming a trusted colleague who ensured that everything would always go smoothly and efficiently.

In addition to his work for John Williams, Graham also worked as orchestrator and conductor for such composers as Alan Silvestri, John Debney, Alexandre Desplat and Theodore Shapiro. As head of music preparation, he worked on an impressive series of successful films, including such all-time box office hits as Avengers: Endgame and Avatar: The Way of Water.

Mark sits down for a rare conversation with The Legacy of John Williams to talk about the path that led him to become the leading music preparator in Hollywood and to his collaboration with John Williams, telling stories and anecdotes about his three decades of work for the Maestro and sharing the unique insight he collected over the years by being one of Williams’ closest and most trusted colleagues.

For more information, read at https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2025/09/30/mark-graham-podcast/

As promised during his latest talk, GRAMMY-nominated soundtrack producer Mike Matessino returns to The Legacy of John Williams podcast to discuss more about the historical 50th anniversary soundtrack edition of Jaws, but also to present another archival reissue from John Williams' catalogue: the suspenseful score for the 1977 thriller Black Sunday, finally back in print in a newly remastered edition courtesy of La-La Land Records. Matessino also takes the chance to comment about his involvement in John Williams - The Anthology, a lavish retrospective boxset from Sony Classical whose first volume has been released last July.

In this new conversation, Mike Matessino goes further in the depth of his restoration work for the Jaws 50th Anniversary soundtrack, addressing both the challenges and the joys of this venture; after that, he talks about his remastering of Williams' tense score for Black Sunday, for which he also offers a new assessement on its artistic value. The talk is rounded off with commentary on the John Williams Anthology boxset and a tribute to Kurt-Hans Goedicke, former legendary Principal Timpani of the London Symphony Orchestra, who recently passed away and whose epic and formidable sound graced classic Williams scores recorded in London including the original Star Wars trilogy, Superman, Dracula, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Read more at https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2025/09/16/soundtrack-spotlight-jaws50-black-sunday-jw-anthology/

John Williams: A Composer's Life is the first major biography in English language on the legendary American composer, authored by Los Angeles-based writer Tim Greiving and published by Oxford University Press (release date is September 2, 2025). The 640-page book is an engaging overview on the life and career of the renowned composer, a comprehensive retrospective of a musician who defined the sound of movies for at least two generations of filmgoers and whose body of work is among the most well known of the modern era, going beyond its mere function as musical accompaniment to a film and becoming a revered object in itself. Yet the man has remained very private all throughout his career and while he became a beloved public figure, he kept his personal life very far from the spotlight.

Through unique access to the composer himself and many of his longtime collaborators, friends, and family members, Greiving offers an exhaustive portrait of the man behind the genius, accurately chronicling his entire life and the incredible career trajectory that led him to become "the Maestro of the Movies."

Tim Greiving sits down with The Legacy of John Williams to talk about his lifelong love for John Williams' music, his quest in bringing the first biography on the Maestro to life, the thorough learning process he went through when meeting and talking with his idol and the weight of the daunting task he chose.

Read more at The Legacy of John Williams:

https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2025/07/16/tim-greiving-podcast/

Pre-order John Williams: A Composer's Life on Oxford University Press: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/john-williams-9780197620885

Tim Greiving's official website: https://timgreiving.com/ Follow Tim Greiving's Substack Behind The Moon: https://behindthemoon.substack.com/

“From legendary composer John Williams, a soundtrack so incredible it was recorded twice…”

On the heels of the celebrations for the 50th Anniversary of Steven Spielberg's blockbuster classic Jaws, Universal Studios and Universal Music Enterprises presents new remastered releases of the masterful score composed by John Williams. The plural is not a typo because both the original film score and the soundtrack album recording are being newly reissued in brand-new editions restored, remixed and remastered by GRAMMY-nominated producer Mike Matessino for digital, vinyl and CD releases.

Soundtrack producer Mike Matessino comes back on The Legacy of John Williams podcast to offer a first round of commentary and illustrating the details of the various releases of the Jaws 50th Anniversary, while also assessing the importance of the score in John Williams' career and further elaborating on the differences between the original film score and the soundtrack album recording.

Visit Jaws50Music.com for more information. JAWS™ & ©1975 Universal City Studios LLLP

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What are the best re-recordings of John Williams’ music by other conductors? Star Wars is famously one of the most re-recorded pieces of music in the world, yet there are so much more John Williams re-recordings by many top conductors which deserves a bit of recognition. Join The Legacy of John Williams Head Contributor Tim Burden in a fascinating journey showcasing highlights and curiosities from over 50 years of re-recordings of John Williams’ music—from the superb readings by Charles Gerhardt and Zubin Mehta to the recent vibrant recordings by Gustavo Dudamel, including some fun and unexpected oddities in-between.

If you want to dig deeper on the subject, read the in-depth essay by Editor Maurizio Caschetto chronicling the history of John Williams’ re-recordings.

2025 began with two long-awaited archival reissues of John Williams’ scores: The Reivers (from La-La Land Records) and The Patriot (from Intrada). Both are presented in fully remastered and expanded presentations by GRAMMY-nominated soundtrack producer Mike Matessino, finally giving fans of Maestro Williams the chance to rediscover two masterworks from the composer’s catalogue. The scores also presents the occasion to observe the evolution of Williams’ voice when writing music for American-themed subjects, a recurring motif in his career.

Producer Mike Matessino returns on The Legacy of John Williams podcast together with film music writer John Takis to discuss these two milestone releases from John Williams’ filmography, offering commentary and reflections about how the two scores sit in the composer’s canon and their specific nature as part of Williams’ exploration of the American sound. A special tribute to Intrada’s late founder and producer Douglass Fake is included at the end of the episode.

Special Thanks to Roger Feigelson, Jeff Johnson (Intrada) and MV Gerhard, Matt Verboys (La-La Land Records).

Read more at thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com

Intrada Records announced the release of a newly expanded and remastered soundtrack 3-CD limited edition of John Williams' triumphant score for The Patriot, the historical epic drama from 2000 directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Mel Gibson as a hero of the American Revolution.

The Academy Award-nominated score by Maestro Williams is a powerful, ambitious work full of stirring emotions enhancing the rousing adventure aspect of the film, but also replete with lyrical moments accompanying the inner feelings of the characters, including tender folk-like violin solos by Mark O'Connor. The score has plenty to offer in terms of themes and leitmotifs: a sonorous Americana theme and fanfare-like material for main hero Benjamin Martin; a gorgeous love theme for the characters of Anne and Gabriel; a haunting trumpet solo echoing Benjamin's traumatic war memories; plus a handful of secondary motifs. Williams also addresses the period in which the film takes place with authentic fife-and-drum music.

The new soundtrack release is mastered, edited and produced for Intrada by Mike Matessino and presents the complete film presentation of Williams' score on Disc 1 and 2, plus a solid selection of alternate cues and a generous selection of source music tracks, including several composed by John Williams (got to thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com for the full track listing). A remastered presentation of the original Hollywood Records soundtrack album from 2000 rounds off the third disc. The 3-CD set also features a colorful booklet with film stills and in-depth liner notes by John Takis.

The release will be available to order starting January 20th at Intrada.com and will begin shipping immediately afterwards.

Intrada has graciously allowed The Legacy of John Williams to present an exclusive preview of this magnificent new release, hosted by Maurizio Caschetto and Tim Burden, including a full unreleased track ("The Defeat At Charleston").

Special Thanks to Roger Feigelson and Jeff Johnson at Intrada, Mike Matessino and John Takis.

Sing a song for the glorious season!

The Legacy of John Williams presents a special Christmas episode of its podcast series to celebrate the music of the Maestro during this magical, lyrical time of the year together with friends and a few esteemed guests, a sort of Christmas party with people gathering to exchange wishes and reminiscing what made us fall in love with John Williams’s music when we were kids. For this occasion, Mike Matessino joins Tim Burden and Maurizio Caschetto as co-host of the talk.

Kicking off the festivities is journalist, author and lecturer Jon Burlingame, USA’s leading writer on the subject of music for films and television. Burlingame has interviewed John Williams many times over the years, becoming friendly with the composer and chronicling with accurate reporting the many milestones of his career.

The talk continues with another renowned authority on film music: author and writer Jeff Bond. Joining afterwards are several first-time guests on the podcast: New York-based musicians Deniz Cordell and Annie Pasqua, soundtrack producer Neil Bulk and LOJW Contributing Writer Miguel Andrade. Returning guests Jason LeBlanc and John Takis round off the table of this special Christmas episode.

It’s time to grab your favourite Holiday drink, sit down in the comfort of your chair, put the headphones on and feel that gingerbread feeling while listening to this cheerful conversation among friends and connoisseurs sharing their love for John Williams’s music and going somewhere in their memory to tell about how it all began.

Read more at https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2024/12/23/podcast-christmas-special/