At the 40th anniversary of the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, the Las Vegas Young Artists Orchestra celebrates the music of one of the most significant musical minds of the 20th and 21st centuries. John Williams is one of the most prolific and recognizable composers with films such as Superman, Harry Potter, and Jaws, among many more. The scores for each Star Wars movie is a testament as to why John Williams will go down as one of the most prolific composers of all time. We honor Mr. Williams through this special performance featuring the talented students of the LVYAO.

The music of the Star Wars franchise is composed and produced in conjunction with the development of the feature films, television series, and other merchandise within the epic space opera franchise created by George Lucas. Released between 1977 and 2017, the music for the primary feature films was written by composer John Williams and, in the case of the first two trilogies, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. Williams scored the seventh episode, Star Wars: The Force Awakens,[1] and has composed the music for Episode VIII, Star Wars: The Last Jedi,[2] and is currently slated to score Episode IX as well. Those scores were performed by a freelance orchestra, and mostly conducted by William Ross. While the reception of his scores to the different episodes varies, Williams’ scores for the eight saga films count among the most widely known and popular contributions to modern film music. Additionally, music for animated television series spinoffs has been written by Kevin Kiner, and further music has been composed for Star Wars video games and works in other media. Michael Giacchino was the composer on the spin-off film, Rogue One. John Powell will score the Untitled Han Solo film. The scores are played by a symphony orchestra and, in several sections, a choir. They make use of a series of musical themes that represents the various characters, objects and events in the films. Throughout the film, Williams has written one of the largest, most rich collection of themes in the history of film music.