You’re invited to a celebration of John Williams film music!

If I mention Jaws, you hear the music.

If I mention Darth Vader, you hear the music.

If you see the spiky letters that spell out “Harry Potter,” you hear the music.

The film scores of John Williams are like a language that many of us have spoken since childhood. And now, for the first time, there is a full biography of the master composer. John Williams: A Composer’s Life, by Tim Greiving, is a rigorously researched account informed by thorough interviews with Williams’s colleaguees and with the composer himself. It’s an ideal gift for the cinephiles in your life.

And I’m going to interview the author about the epic adventure he has now completed. (Cue that triumphant Indiana Jones theme! Or maybe the medal ceremony music from the end of Star Wars, Episode 1 — A New Hope!)

You’re invited! Join me at Seattle’s Hugo House at 6 p.m. on January 8 for a revealing conversation with film-score scholar Tim Greiving, in which we’ll hear about how his love of great movie music led him to meet so many of his heroes — from Kieślowski’s great composer Zbigniew Preisner to the master of The Dark Crystal Trevor Jones — and how he became the first biographer to spend meaningful time with John Williams’s many famous collaborators as well as the master himself.

This is a thrill for me. I’m a lifelong film score enthusiasist and collector, and I can honestly say that Williams is an artist who has changed my life. But I am also lucky enough to say that Tim Greiving has become a trusted friend, and I cannot wait to ask him questions about Williams, and about the movies he’s scored. Hopefully we’ll also have time to talk about certain composers and certain film scores I haven’t asked him about before. And I anticipate that you’ll have questions of your own.

All the details you need are here.