Oscar winner John Williams among 19 new members of American Academy of Arts and Letters

NEW YORK (AP) — After composing some of the most famous soundtracks in history, and winning multiple Academy Awards, John Williams has been welcomed into a more rarefied institution: the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

“Every year I am both astonished and delighted to see the list of amazing new members of the Academy; and it’s especially exciting to see the range of the arts and letters represented," Kwame Anthony Appiah, the academy's president, said in a statement.

The 92-year-old Williams is known for such films as “Jaws,” “Star Wars” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” But he also has had a career outside of movies that is more in line with academy tradition. He conducted the Boston Pops for more than a decade, composed symphonies and chamber music, and wrote concertos for bassoon, flute and violin and trumpet, along with a cello concerto for Yo-Yo Ma.