Upcoming world premiere of John Williams' "Serenade for Horn and Strings" - October 26, 2025

[Tydirium 1,487]

https://www.dailyrepublic.com/diversions/french-horn-player-will-debut-john-williams-piece-with-vallejo-symphony/article_e13cea72-29ff-45bd-9b4b-df4fc411c483.html

 

Not sure how this slipped under our radar, but the premiere is Oct 26. Apparently it was written back in 2011 for this guy's dad (legendary horn player Dale Clevenger of the CSO, for whom JW wrote his Horn Concerto), and is just now being performed for the first time.

[Tom 6,066]

2 hours ago, Tydirium said:

https://www.dailyrepublic.com/diversions/french-horn-player-will-debut-john-williams-piece-with-vallejo-symphony/article_e13cea72-29ff-45bd-9b4b-df4fc411c483.html

 

Not sure how this slipped under our radar, but the premiere is Oct 26. Apparently it was written back in 2011 for his dad, and is just now being performed for the first time.

That is very touching.  Williams may be one of the most authentic and down to earth artists of our age.  

 

Exciting to have a new piece as well. It could be quite special, based on the context.  My guess is it will be something along the lines of the Elegy, but with hints of joy.  

[Marian Schedenig 10,855]

Hang on… just how many more JW world premieres will we get before the year is over?

[Tom 6,066]

1 hour ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Hang on… just how many more JW world premieres will we get before the year is over?

Have we ever had two world premieres on back-to-back days?   

[JohnnyD 1,652]

14 hours ago, Tydirium said:

https://www.dailyrepublic.com/diversions/french-horn-player-will-debut-john-williams-piece-with-vallejo-symphony/article_e13cea72-29ff-45bd-9b4b-df4fc411c483.html

 

Not sure how this slipped under our radar, but the premiere is Oct 26. Apparently it was written back in 2011 for this guy's dad (legendary horn player Dale Clevenger of the CSO, for whom JW wrote his Horn Concerto), and is just now being performed for the first time.

Wow, that is really fantastic! I hope this gets recorded.

[artguy360 2,129]

I hope this is recorded. More JW music out of nowhere is always a welcome surprise. The context is very personal. I'm interested to hear how that is reflected in the music itself.

[pete 1,257]

Quote

"Williams also, unforgettably, was extremely enthusiastic about my mother’s Derby Pie (a secret family recipe). He would always ask 'Will Alice’s delicious pie be included this Thanksgiving?'”

 

Well that wasn't in the book!

[Tom 6,066]

"John called. He wants to know if you are making your pie this year?"

"Ugh! Does he have to crash every single Thanksgiving?  Fine, whatever, but we're ordering out."

[BB-8 5,579]

Will he show up?

[Mr. Hooper 6,944]

Just don't call it "Derby Pie"!

 

 

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/05/01/399842082/whats-inside-a-derby-pie-maybe-a-lawsuit-waiting-to-happen

 

 

[karelm 3,236]

It's kind of crazy to think there are completed works we've never heard about.  How much else is out there waiting to be discovered?

[Sandor 875]

EDIT

[Jay 43,953]

This is so cool to go from not knowing if or when we'd hear new John WIlliams music, to getting two world premieres on back to back days!

 

When the World Was Waltzing on October 25, and now Serenade for Horn and Strings on October 26.

 

Incredible!

[JohnnyD 1,652]

 

34 minutes ago, Jay said:

This is so cool to go from not knowing if or when we'd hear new John WIlliams music, to getting two world premieres on back to back days!

 

When the World Was Waltzing on October 25, and now Serenade for Horn and Strings on October 26.

 

Incredible!

 

It really is incredible. Do you know if either or both will be listenable like via radio stream or recorded? I'd love to hear both pieces.

[Bayesian 1,560]

This is so surreal to read. Vallejo has a not-so-great reputation, being considered one of the worst cities in the Bay Area. (I live there, but near the outer edge where there are nicer parts -- and only because my wife and I got priced out of Contra Costa County in 2021.) The downtown district, home to the Empress Theater, is a derelict wasteland of shuttered small businesses and streets that desperately need repaving. I'm ASTONISHED that the city has an orchestra. We can barely manage to keep three or four dozen police officers on active duty for a city of 120,000 people across 30 square miles. (I'm told the city was in fine shape until the Mare Island Naval Shipyard got decommissioned in 1996, which lost the city its largest employer.)

 

Anyway, I can't believe that not only is the Vallejo Symphony a thing, but that they're going to premiere a JW work! This is incredible! Naturally, I will be in attendance and already bought my ticket. I'll do my very best to discreetly record the new work (using the Voice Memos app) and bring it to you all here.

 

[Mr. Hooper 6,944]

1 hour ago, Bayesian said:

I'll do my very best to discreetly record the new work (using the Voice Memos app) and bring it to you all here.

[BB-8 5,579]

 

 

"London Symphony...The Miracle"...I got palpitations for a sec.

[Jay 43,953]

I don't think the official event page has been posted yet

 

https://app.arts-people.com/?show=282837

[backfromthedead 53]

On 21/10/2025 at 8:44 PM, Bayesian said:

This is so surreal to read. Vallejo has a not-so-great reputation, being considered one of the worst cities in the Bay Area. (I live there, but near the outer edge where there are nicer parts -- and only because my wife and I got priced out of Contra Costa County in 2021.) The downtown district, home to the Empress Theater, is a derelict wasteland of shuttered small businesses and streets that desperately need repaving. I'm ASTONISHED that the city has an orchestra. We can barely manage to keep three or four dozen police officers on active duty for a city of 120,000 people across 30 square miles. (I'm told the city was in fine shape until the Mare Island Naval Shipyard got decommissioned in 1996, which lost the city its largest employer.)

 

Anyway, I can't believe that not only is the Vallejo Symphony a thing, but that they're going to premiere a JW work! This is incredible! Naturally, I will be in attendance and already bought my ticket. I'll do my very best to discreetly record the new work (using the Voice Memos app) and bring it to you all here.

 

 

I was thinking the same thing. For those of you outside the Bay Area, Vallejo is a physically beautiful area but notorious for not being particularly safe.

 

I am shocked this is being premiered there, of all places.  I would consider making the drive but don't want to worry about safety.   

[Escape_Velocity 22]

19 hours ago, backfromthedead said:

 

I was thinking the same thing. For those of you outside the Bay Area, Vallejo is a physically beautiful area but notorious for not being particularly safe.

 

I am shocked this is being premiered there, of all places.  I would consider making the drive but don't want to worry about safety.   

So  essentially Vallejo is a great white shark, a premiere of a new John Williams  piece is the yellow barrel, and we’re the crew of the Orca potentially chasing it.

[Tom 6,066]

On 24/10/2025 at 6:28 PM, backfromthedead said:

 

Vallejo is a physically beautiful area but notorious for not being particularly safe.

 

I know the type.

[Tom 6,066]

I suppose that this goes without asking, but how was it?  

[Mr. Hooper 6,944]

Hopefully nobody in attendance got stuck in Ms. Vallejo's sinister web...which includes painting her toenails late at night.

 

[Bayesian 1,560]

Hi everyone,

 

I've attached here photos of the program and program notes. The story behind the Serenade is touching. I won't spoil it by trying to summarize it. The music itself is lovely. I'm not very good at describing music, but I will say it's appropriate for the mood it was written for and features some beautiful harmonies and several moments that sound very JW-in-sincere-mode to my ears.

 

The work runs about 8:35 long and is very chamber-like. I wish I took a better look at the time, as I was focusing entirely on the music, but I estimate there were some 8 violins, 4-5 violas, 3-4 cellos, and 2 double basses, plus Jesse Clevenger on horn.

 

 

[artguy360 2,129]

The serenade is lovely. Initial reaction: it is very JW, quite reflective, and has an expansiveness that sounds larger than a small ensemble piece.

[Jay 43,953]

Here's the text in the concert program from @Bayesian's images:

 

John Williams (b. 1932). Serenade for Horn and Strings (World Premiere). Composed in 2011 but never performed. Scored for solo horn and strings.

 

Composer John Williams, now in his tenth decade, has garnered more awards and nominations than almost anyone on earth. Only Walt Disney received more Oscar nominations. Having begun his career scoring and playing piano for television show soundtracks, Williams moved on to film, composing scores for dozens of the most popular films of the last sixty years, from Jaws to Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, three of the Harry Potter films, and many, many more. Williams has also composed classical works, including concertos, orchestral works, and chamber pieces.

We are thrilled tonight to be presenting the world premiere of John Williams' Serenade for Horn and Strings, composed in 2011 but never performed. Williams composed the Serenade for his close friend, horn player Dale Clevenger (1940-2022), whose wife, Alice Anne Render, also a horn player, died in that year. Clevenger had already played the premiere of a Williams Concerto for Horn and Orchestra commissioned for him in 2003, but this smaller work was a gift, and of a much more personal nature. Dale and Alice Clevenger's son Jesse, also a horn player, will perform the concerto dedicated to his parents for us tonight. His account of how the Serenade came to be and why it was never played publicly appears here:

John Williams sent this score to my father in 2011 as a memorial to my mother who had passed away earlier that year.

She had battled breast cancer heroically for eight years. She had continued performing with the Chicago Symphony, sitting next to my father, during these years of treatment. Williams came to conduct his music with the CSO annually during Thanksgiving.

 

He often came to our house for Thanksgiving dinner. As a little kid, I was amazed by this kindly man who had conceived of an entire world of music that I associated with stories (movies) that had accompanied my imagination throughout childhood and on to this very day. I remember hearing French Horn playing in his film scores and deciding "that's the best thing I've ever heard. Mom and Dad do that. I have to do that too!"

Mr. Williams was a personal friend of my mother and father and actually composed a horn concerto for my father. There was a lot of love and admiration between them. Williams also, unforgettably, was extremely enthusiastic about my mother's Derby Pie (a secret family recipe). He would always ask "Will Alice's delicious pie be included this Thanksgiving?"

Williams recognized the lovely family atmosphere in which I was blessed to grow up. He was aware of my mother's battle with cancer and often called or wrote to wish her well. When she passed away, he gave my father the deepest form of condolences that we could imagine: this short Serenade.

My father lived for ten years after my mother's passing. He never performed the piece. I got the sense that it was too emotionally difficult for him to even approach it. So now, in honor of my parents, and with infinite gratitude to John Williams, I am humbled by the opportunity to perform this work.

-Jesse Clevenger

 

AI pulled that from the image for me.  Pretty cool! 

[backfromthedead 53]

Is there any audio for this?

[Maurizio 6,357]

It's an absolutely sweet and lovely piece. It has the forlorn, wistful character of other Williams adagios, but there's also a speck of serenity. I hope it will become part of the instrument's repertoire.

[BB-8 5,579]

Source?

[BB-8 5,579]

[christian 27]

One miscellaneous note:

 

Looking for other "Serenades" in John Williams musical world I just saw that his song "Serenade" was posted on Youtube in August this year. I had almost forgotten about this song cycle which included that song.

 

 

 

[backfromthedead 53]

This is amazing. I should have driven out to Vallejo to hear it.  Deserves a proper recording. 

 

Just gorgeous.  

 

Hidden gem.

[artguy360 2,129]

What an incredible week for JW fans in the year 2025. 2 new pieces and confirmation that he is working on a new film! We are so blessed.

[mrbellamy 7,631]

It's funny to think I was a preteen when an already 70 year old man relatively late in his career became my favorite and yet I still have had my entire adolescence and almost two decades of adult life looking forward to his new music. He's definitely the gift that keeps on giving. 

[ChipChune92 56]

Was there uh....any kind of....unofficial audio sample made of the piece?

 

[Tom 6,066]

Concert Review:

https://www.sfcv.org/articles/review/jesse-clevenger-serenades-vallejo-john-williams-premiere#