There’s nothing like being honored for your 52nd Oscar nomination on your 88th birthday and finding yourself serenaded by 350 of the town’s top composers and songwriters.
But that was Saturday afternoon for composer John Williams at the Society of Composers & Lyricists’ annual Oscar music reception, which was attended by nearly all of the original-score and original-song nominees on the day before the Academy Awards ceremony.Williams — nominated this year for “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” — responded by pulling out the ceremonial baton he had just been awarded by Scl and conducting the last few bars of “Happy Birthday” being sung by the appreciative crowd.The famous composer of “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” “E.T.” and many other classics said that receiving Oscar nominations “rather late in life, mean more all the time, the opposite of what you might think.” Williams’ 52 nominations are more than any other living individual
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