Biography
Giovanni "Nino" Rota (3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic. He is best known for his film scores, particularly those for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti, as well as for the first two films in Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trilogy.
Rota composed the music for 8½ (1963), The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974). He received the Academy Award for Best Original Score for the latter. During a long career he wrote more than 150 film scores, alongside operas, ballets and orchestral works. He also composed for theatre productions by Visconti, Franco Zeffirelli and Eduardo De Filippo, and directed the Liceo Musicale in Bari for almost 30 years.
