Who is the best orchestra compositor in this times? Is it John Williams?

Compositor? Yeah, I know what you meant!

John Williams certainly has done some incredible composing over the past decades, but most of it is for films. Don't get me wrong, that does not diminish his talent and greatness. I think you could also add people like James Horner, Elmer Bernstein, John Barry, Jerry Goldsmith, Alan Sylvestri and Danny Elfman to that list. As far as a film composer goes, Williams is excellent.

But, as far as being a composer of modern music, I'd have to say that John Adams is the best. Since the 1980s, he became the mostly widely performed composer since Aaron Copland. His works include Harmonielehre, Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Fearful Symmetries and the well known reality-based opera, Nixon in China. Give him a listen and you may agree.

As far as "compositors" go, one could argue that John Williams has made a career on ripping off all the big symphonic composers like Gustav Holst, for one example. But, remember, composing music for an orchestra is different than composing orchestral music for a film, which is what Mr. Williams mainly does.

As far as true composers for orchestra working today, I would definitely agree that John Adams is at the top of the list. Short Ride In A Fast Machine, besides being a tremendously difficult piece to play, has all the energy and power of a heavy rock song, which makes it a great piece for getting younger kids into so-called "classical" music. His work called Shaker Loops is one of my favorite pieces of music in any genre.