» Early Life

Ennio Morricone was born in Rome from a musical family. As the son of a jazz trumpeter, Morricone wrote his first compositions at the age of six. At the end of nine years old, he took up the trumpet and attended the National Academy of Santa Cecilia for lessons. Morricone enrolled in the conservatory's four-year harmony program in 1940, but completed the program in two years.

Morricone's music for World War II films was influenced by the difficult years he spent studying music in that period in Rome.

» Early Career

Before heading into film, Morricone wrote classical voice and piano compositions like "Distacco I e Distacco II" and background music for various radio dramas in the early 1950's.

He concluded his studies and obtained a diploma in composition in 1954. Afterward, He arranged music for films that were credited to other composers. On occasion Morricone was credited under pseudonyms like Dan Savio and Leo Nichols.

As his career continued to progress, Morricone became a part of a group of composers called "Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza" who performed and recorded avant garde free improvisations.

» Work with Sergio Leone

Morricone began composing film scores in the early 1960s. Though his first films were undistinguished, Morricone's arrangement of an American folk song intrigued director and former schoolmate Sergio Leone. Leone hired Morricone, and together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western, A Fistful of Dollars (1964).

As budget strictures limited Morricone's access to a full orchestra, he used gunshots, cracking whips, whistle, voices, guimbarde (jaw harp), trumpets, and the new Fender electric guitar, instead of orchestral arrangements of Western standards à la John Ford. Morricone used his special effects to punctuate and comically tweak the action—cluing in the audience to the taciturn man's ironic stance.

» Film Career

Most of Morricone's film scores of the 1960s were composed outside the Spaghetti Western genre like Il Malamondo (1964), Slalom (1965), The Battle of Algiers (1965), and Listen, Let's Make Love (1967). In 1968, Morricone reduced his work outside the movie business and wrote scores for 20 films in the same year. The scores included psychedelic accompaniment for Mario Bava's superhero romp Danger: Diabolik (1968). In 1970, Morricone wrote the score for Violent City. In 1973, he scored a theme for the crime film Revolver (1973). He received his first nomination for an Academy Award in 1979 for the score to Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978) and another in 1986 for The Mission (Roland Joffé, 1986), in 1987 for The Untouchables (Brian De Palma, 1987), in 1991 for Bugsy (Barry Levinson, 1991), and in 2001 for Malèna (Giuseppe Tornatore, 2000). Morricone composed the score for John Carpenter's science-fiction/horror movie The Thing (1982).

» Recent Activity

He made his North American concert debut on January 29, 2007 Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City and four days later at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The previous evening, Morricone had already presented at the United Nations a concert comprising some of his film themes, as well as the cantata Voci dal silenzio to welcome the new Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

Morricone received an honorary Academy Award on February 25, 2007, presented by Clint Eastwood, "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music." With the statuette came a standing ovation. Though nominated five times, he had not previously received an Oscar.

In spring and summer 2010, Morricone worked with Hayley Westenra for a collaboration on her upcoming album Paradiso, which was released in New Zealand on 18 April 2011. The album features new songs written by Morricone, as well as some of his best known film compositions of the last 50 years.

» Awards

• [1965] Nastro d'Argento for the score of A Fistful of Dollars
• [1969] Spoleto Cinema Award
• [1970] Nastro d'Argento for the score of Love Cyrcle
• [1971] Nastro d'Argento Award for the score of Sacco e Vanzetti
• [1979] Academy Award nominee for the score of Days of Heaven
• [1985] BAFTA awards for the score of Once upon a time in America
• [1986] BAFTA & Golden Globe awards for the score of The Mission
• [1988] Nastro d'Argento, BAFTA, Grammy Award & Academy Award nominee for the score of The Untouchables
• [1989] Ninth Annual Ace Winner for the score of Il giorno prima
• [1990] David di Donatello for the score of Cinema Paradiso

• [1992] He received the Grolla d'oro Lifetime Achievement award in Saint Vincent.
• [1994] Receive the Lifetime Achievement award by the Society for Preservation of Film Music; The American Society of Composers, Authors & Publisher awarded him with the Golden Soundtrack.
• [1999] European Film Award, Berlin
• [2001] Golden Globe from the foreign press in Italy.
• [2003] Morricone received the Golden prize by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs as ambassador of the Italian culture in the world.
• [2007] Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
• [2010] was awarded with the Polar Music Prize