Nicola Piovani (born 26 May 1946) is an Italian light-classical musician, theater and film score composer. In 1998, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score for Roberto Benigni's film Life Is Beautiful (1997). After high school, Piovani enrolled at the Sapienza University of Rome, receiving his degree in piano from the Verdi Conservatory in Milan in 1967, and later studied orchestration under the Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis. In 1971 and 1973 collaborated for the music of two albums of the songwriter Fabrizio De André: Storia di un impiegato and Non al denaro non all'amore né al cielo. In 2008, after De André departure, Piovani wrote the music for the film Amore che vieni, amore che vai, inspired by a novel of De André himself, Un destino ridicolo.
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