Born in Rome, Italy Morricone took up the trumpet as a child and attended the National Academy of Santa Cecilia to take lessons on the instrument at the age of nine. He formally entered a conservatory at the age of 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony programme. He received his trumpet diploma in 1946 and started working professionally, composing the music to "Il Mattino" ("The Morning"). Morricone soon gained popularity by writing his first background music for radio dramas and quickly moved into film.
In the 1950s he received the "Diploma in Instrumentation for Band" (fanfare) where he won a diploma in Composition under the composer Goffredo Petrassi. In 1955, Morricone started to ghost write and arrange music for other, already established film composers. Morricone soon came to the attention of his former school friend Sergio Leone, who hired Morricone to compose the music to some of his best known films. Together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western, A Fistful of Dollars.
In the 80s and 90s, Morricone continued to write the music for Leone's later films, including Once Upon a Time in America (1984). He also composed the music to Joffe's The Mission (1986), De Palma's The Untouchables (1987) and Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso (1988). His more recent compositions include the scores for Malena (2000), Fateless (2005), and Baaria - La porta del vento (2009).
Morricone has received two Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, five BAFTAs during 1979-1992, seven David di Donatello, eight Nastro d'Argento, and the Polar Music Prize in 2010. In 2007, he received the Academy Honorary Award "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music" and has been nominated for a further five Oscars in the category of Best Original Score during 1979-2001, but has never won competitively.
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