Oscar for Maestro Ennio Morricone

Everyone was on their feet at the Kodak theatre in Los Angeles, for Ennio Morricone. The Oscar was given to him to a backdrop of scenes from the most important films that the Italian maestro wrote the musical scores for accompanied by his music. Everyone there gave him a warm and sincere round of applause that overcame Morricone with emotion.

"Thank you, thank you very much", said Morricone, whilst receiving the Oscar, his voice breaking from the emotion. "I would like to thank all of those who wanted me to receive this award" he continued in Italian, "and who continued to consider me for this award. Special thanks to all the directors of the films for which I wrote music. I would not be here were it not for them. A consideration should also be given to all the artists who have yet to receive an Oscar and deserve one. I hope that they can also receive one in the near future. This award" he added, "for me signifies not the end of the journey, but the beginning of my journey to improve myself in the service that I provide to cinema. Finally I would like to give a special thanks to my wife Maria, who loves me so much that this award is even for her" he concluded before leaving the stage.

Celine Dion paid homage to Morricone singing "I Knew I Loved You" a track from "Once upon a time in America".

It seems incredible, but Ennio Morricone has never won an Oscar before. He has been nominated five times in his career that has spanned 45 years, but never with any success. This is the recognition that the cinema world owed him. He was nominated in 1978 for a "Days of Heaven", ten years later for "Mission" in 1987 for the theme music of Brian De Palma's "Untouchables", in 1991 for "Bugsy" and in 2000 for "Malena" by Giuseppe Tornatore.

The list of films for which Morricone has composed music is really long and ranges from the De Palma's "Untouchables" to "Il Vizietto" with Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault to "Nuovo cinema Paradiso", Tornatore's 1990 film that won the Oscar for the best foreign film. However, Morricone's professional and private life is strongly linked to Sergio Leone, who he started to work with in 1965 with the theme tune to "A Fistful of Dollars" and all the subsequent spaghetti westerns by the roman director ("For a Few Dollars More", "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", "Once Upon a Time in the West", "A Fistful of Dynamite"), this was a collaboration that lasted until Leone's last film, the gangster film "Once Upon a Time in America". It was during this collaboration that he created some of his most famous pieces of music. It is for Sergio Leone that Morricone created the best theme tune of all time, music that contributed to making Leone's films masterpieces.

Credits that have been recognised in Italy when in 1995 he was awarded the golden lion at the Venice film exhibition.

During his long career Ennio Morricone has even composed a lot of music for television, amongst which is the TV film on the life of Pope Woityla, Giovanni Falcone and Gino Bartali, and now he is in the process of working on two important pieces, the sequel to the "Untouchables" – "The Untouchables: Capone Rising" and "Leningrado", a Giuseppe Tornatore film that will depict life in the soviet city from the point of view of a German soldier posted there during the Second World War.

Despite his the success that he has enjoyed, Morricone has no intention of stopping. In fact he will be performing live in the USA on 2^nd February at a charity concert held at the "General Assembly of the United Nations", to welcome the new secretary general Ban Ki-Moon. He will perform "Voices of Silence" a piece of music inspired by the tragic events of September 11^th.A day later he will perform at Radio City Music Hall, in the Big Apple;.