Ennio Morricone was a child prodigy who played the trumpet and studied composition with Goffredo Petrassi, becoming one of his favourite pupils. In the 1950s he began writing for radio and films, and made a breakthrough in the 1960s with his dramatic music for Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns, starring Clint Eastwood. Since then Morricone has composed scores for over four hundred films and won many awards. He has also produced a quantity of vocal and instrumental works.