Ennio Morricone, brief biography
Ennio Morricone was born in Rome on November 10, 1928. In 1946 he obtained a trumpet diploma at a Conservatory, and in 1954 he graduated in Composition there. In 1958 he was hired as a musical assistant by Rai (the Italian state broadcasting company), but he resigned on his very first day. His career as a composer of film music began in 1961 with Luciano Salce’s Federal. However, he became famous throughout the world with Sergio Leone’s Western. Since 1960 Morricone has composed music for more than 400 films, working with many Italian and international directors, including Sergio Leone, Gillo Pontecorvo, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Bernardo Bertolucci, Giuliano Montaldo, Lina Wertmuller, Giuseppe Tornatore, Brian De Palma, Roman Polanski, Warren Beatty, Adrian Lyne, Oliver Stone, Margarethe Von Trotta, Henry Verneuil, Pedro Almodovar, and Roland Joffe. The following are among his most famous films: The Battle of Algiers, Sacco and Vanzetti, Cinema Paradiso, The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean, Malèna, The Untouchables, Once Upon a Time in America, Mission and U-Turn.
His production of ‘absolute music’ includes more than 100 compositions since 1946 to the present day. Ennio Morricone has conducted various orchestras around the world. On February 2, 2007, Maestro Morricone conducted a major concert with the Rome Symphony Orchestra at the UN General Assembly to celebrate the inauguration of the new UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The following are some of the awards: eight Silver Ribbons, five Baftas, five Oscar nominations, seven David Di Donatellos, three Golden Globes, one Grammy Award, one European Film Award, as well as a Golden Lion and an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement. In 2009 the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, signed a decree appointing the Maestro Ennio Morricone to the rank of Knight in the order of the Legion of Honour.
In the record business he has had twentyseven gold records, seven platinum records, three gold plates and in 1981 the "Records critic" prize for the music of the film Il Prato. The soundtrack of the film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is among the new entries into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009.
The faces of the shift
