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Bill Conti

Oscar and three-time Emmy Award winner Bill Conti's compositions have sold in excess of eight million albums.

For the silver screen, Conti has composed the musical scores for many box office giants including. He won an Oscar for Best Original Score for The Right Stuff in 1983 and received two Oscar nominations for Best Original Song -- one for the Sheena Easton hit record For Your Eyes Only from the James Bond picture of the same title and one for Gonna Fly Now, the powerful anthem from the 1976 Academy Award-winning Best Picture Rocky.

The soundtrack for Rocky also garnered a host of other honors including a Golden Globe nomination, a Billboard Award nomination, an RIAA Certified Platinum Album, a Rock Award nomination, and a Grammy nomination for Best Original Score. Gonna Fly Now not only occupied the number one position on the Billboard magazine charts for the week of July 2, 1997, but also received an RIAA Certified Gold Record and two Grammy nominations for Best Instrumental Composition and Performance.

Conti's work for the small screen has been equally as critically acclaimed, receiving a total of ten Emmy nominations throughout his career. He won two Emmy Awards in 1990 for developing the creative concept and composing the score for the running of the New York City Marathon, and again in 1992 for his musical direction during the telecast of the Academy Award Ceremonies, marking the first time an Emmy was awarded for a participant in the Oscar ceremonies. For six consecutive years (1990-1995) he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Direction for his work on the Academy Award shows.

Although the public may not be aware of it, Conti has composed some of the most recognizable themes for television broadcasts, including those for the 1984 Good Morning America, Turning Point, World News Tonight, Prime Time Live, Nightline, ABC Sports, Inside Edition, and American Gladiators.

In addition to his composing, Conti spends considerable time traveling around the world as a guest conductor for many prestigious orchestras including the Boston Pops, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Music Festival, the National Symphony at Wolf Trap, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the Florida Pops Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic, the RAI Orchestra of Rome, and the Graunke Orchestra of Munich. He has also been the principal pops conductor for the Nashville Symphony.

Born in Providence, Rhode Island on April 13, 1942, Conti began studying piano at age seven under the tutelage of his father, an accomplished pianist, sculptor and painter. After graduating from Louisiana State University, where he met his wife, Shelby, Conti attended the Juilliard School of Music in New York.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2007.

Bill Conti Facts

OccupationComposer
BirthdayApril 13, 1942 (80)
SignAries
BirthplaceProvidence, Rhode Island, USA

Selected Filmography

Not available.