The Italian Academy Award winning composer Ennio Morricone OMRI was born in Rome on November 10, 1928. The seventy-nine year old musical wizard has composed for over 500 motion pictures including television. Some of his most memorable compositions can be heard films like A Fistful of Dollars, The Mission, Fateless and Lolita. Ennio Morricone has been honored with five Academy Awards nominations, winning none. He received an Honorary Academy Award for his outstanding contribution to film music in 2007.

Ennio Morricone learned the nitty-gritty of music at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia under the able guidance of Goffredo Petrassi. Goffredo Petrassi made an impeccable mark on Morricone who dedicated many of his concert pieces to the master. At the Academy Ennio Morricone was taught composition, choral direction, choral music and instruments like the trumpet. Morricone undertook a four year harmony program at the music conservatory starting in 1940. A major part of Ennio Morricone’s education happened in the foreground of World War II and its impact can be realized in many of his scores.

In order to support his family Ennio Morricone started arranging pop songs for local entertainment channel Radiotelevisione Italiana where he worked for two years, he also performed for a local Jazz band. In the years after 1958 Morricone slowly but steadily acquired the position of the most trusted studio arranger at RCA. His colleagues at RCA were Rita Pavone, Mario Lanza and Renato Rascel. During the same era Ennio Morricone’s song titled “Se telefonando” achieved the distinction of being part of the fifth largest selling album in Italy in the year 1966. The song also rose to the position of number seven in the Italian charts.

Ennio Morricone started composing for films at the onset of the 60's after gaining experience in musical idioms at RCA. His first few compositions for films went unnoticed, however his major breakthrough came with the movie A Fistful of Dollars released in 1964 directed by his schoolmate Sergio Leone. Morricone was initially billed on the film as Dan Savio. Ennio Morricone successfully experimented with a variety of unorthodox sounds like that of gunshots, whips, electric guitar, and animal voices in his film scores. The successful partnership of Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone is an outstanding example of the symbiotic relationship between composer and director. Some of the memorable work from this team includes For a Few Dollars More, Once Upon a Time in America and Once upon a Time in the West.

After realizing the possibilities in film music Ennio Morricone entered into a ten year agreement with his long time friend Alessandro Alessandroni, along with his Cantori Moderni the arrangement provided Morricone with a variety of modern voices which he successfully exploited during his career. Ennio Morricone was especially fond of the voice of Solo soprano Edda Dell'Orso.

Ennio Morricone was nominated five times for an Oscar as a composer during 1979 to 2007 for his work in films Malèna (2000), Bugsy (1991), The Untouchables (1987), The Mission (1986) and Days of Heaven (1978). Ennio Morricone received an Honorary Oscar for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music in the year 2007. During his career Ennio has bagged a total of 42 awards and 22 nominations.

Ennio Morricone and Maria Travia married in 1956; the couple had four children Marco, Allessandra, Andrew and Giovanni.