Ennio Morricone (born November 10, 1928, Rome) is an Italian composer especially noted for his film scores. He has composed the scores of more than 500 films and TV series. Although only 30 of these are for Western films, it is for this work which he is best known. Morricone's sparse style of composition for the genre is particularly exemplified by the soundtracks of the classic spaghetti westerns The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966) and Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968).

He received his first Nastro d'Argento in 1970 for the music in Metti, una Sera a Cena (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1969) and his second only a year later for Sacco and Vanzetti (Guiliano Montaldo, 1971). 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, 1987 for The Untouchables (Brian De Palma, 1987), 1991 for Bugsy (Barry Levinson, 1991) and 2001 for Malèna (Giuseppe Tornatore, 2000).

In 2003 he scored the Japanese Taiga drama about Miyamoto Musashi, Japan's legendary warrior.

In 2005 he was on a world tour with the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra, touring from cities like New York, Bilbao, Bratislava and Tokyo.

In 2006 the soundtrack maestro is set to make a guest appearance on the Morrissey album Ringleader of the Tormentors, scoring the string part for Dear God, Please Help Me, recorded in Rome's Forum Music Village Studios.

Morricone has received an honorary Academy Award in February 2007 in recognition of his work.

Ennio Morricone will be visiting Ireland for the first time to perform his only UK and Ireland engagement of 2008 at the Opening Concert of the Belfast Festival at Queen's. The concert takes place at Belfast's Waterfront Hall on Friday 17th October, just days before Morricone’s 80th birthday. He will conduct the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra and Belfast Philharmonic Choir, with over 100 musicians flying to Belfast especially for the occasion.