A Tribute to Εnnio Morricone

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) welcomes autumn with a special tribute to the late Maestro Ennio Morricone who passed away, at age 91, in July.

The tribute includes, between the 8th and the 12th of September, a series of film projections for which the acclaimed Italian composer had written the music, and, on September 13th, a major concert by the Athens State Orchestra at the Stavros Niarchos Hall, under the direction of the renowned conductor Adrian Prabava. The concert will be held without the physical presence of an audience, and transmitted live at the Great Lawn of the Stavros Niarchos Park, with free entry, as well as online on the SNFCC website, Facebook page and YouTube channel. Finally, from September 8, the Dancing Fountains at the Canal will also join the tribute, with an exciting new choreography: the track “Ecstasy of Gold” from the soundtrack of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

The tribute to Ennio Morricone is realized thanks to a program support grant by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), and is co-hosted by the Embassy of Italy in Greece, the Italian Institute of Education in Athens, and the SNFCC. It comes under the Tempo Forte Italia-Grecia Initiative 2020. With the support of The Greek Film Archive Foundation. With media support from the Cultural Association of Friends of Ennio Morricone in Greece.

Born in Rome on November 10th, 1928, Ennio Morricone shaped the landscape of music for film, and inspired several generations of composers, directors and music lovers the world over. Influenced by avant-garde and the music of Bach, he created in the 1960s the new sound of “Spaghetti Westerns” – through his collaboration with his childhood friend and schoolmate Sergio Leone – fusing the sound of the guitar with whistling, animal cries, otherworldly voices and distinctive musical instruments, such as the ocarina. 

Morricone composed more than 500 musical scores for cinema and television, as well as music for more than 100 original shows. He left behind a massive musical legacy, composing the greatest moments of cinematic history through films such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, A Fistful of Dollars, Once Upon a Time in the West and Once Upon a Time in America by Sergio Leone,  Μario Bava’s Diabolik, Henri Verneuil’s The Sicilian Clan, Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven , Roland Joffé’s The Mission,  Brian de Palma’s The Untouchables, Georges Lautner’s The Professional, and Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso and Malena.

In 2007, he was awarded an Honorary Oscar for his overall contributions to the art of film music by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He finally received the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 2016, his sixth nomination, for the soundtrack of Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight.

Saying goodbye to the great Maestro who passed away, the SNFCC pays tribute to his timeless work through the projection of five distinctive films for which he composed the music, and a major concert by the Athens State Orchestra at the Stavros Niarchos Hall, with the best moments of the musical journey of the unforgettable film composer. In particular:

On Sunday, September 13 at 20:30 at the Stavros Niarchos Hall, the Athens State Orchestra, in partnership with the European FilmPhilharmonic Institute, will perform a tribute concert to Morricone, which will include, in addition to emblematic soundtracks from the 1960s (indicatively: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West), some of his contemporary creations, such as the music for Giuseppe Tornatore’s Malena, and the Academy Award winning music for Quentin Tarantino’s film The Hateful Eight.

The Athens State Orchestra is conducted by the acclaimed maestro Adrian Prabava. Born in Indonesia, Prabava studied violin at the Detmold University of Music, and conducting at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. In 2005, he won the second prize in the International Competition for Young Conductors in Besançon. Prabava has conducted major orchestras, such as the Brandenburg State Orchestra (Frankfurt), the German Radio Philharmonic Saarbrücken, the Johannesburg Philharmonic, the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of Hanover, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the French National Orchestra, the Toulouse Capitol National Orchestra, the Strasburg Philharmonic, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, and the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra.

The concert will be held at the Stavros Niarchos Hall, without the physical presence of an audience. It will be transmitted live at the Great Lawn of the Stavros Niarchos Park, with free entry for the public, as well as online on the SNFCC website, Facebook page and YouTube channel.

The film projection series, curated by film critic Ilias Frangoulis, will run from the 8th to the 12th of September at the Great Lawn of the Stavros Niarchos Park, with free entry, and includes the following films:

Tuesday 08/09 Days of Heaven (1978) | Director: Terrence Malick

Wednesday 09/09 The Untouchables (1987) | Director: Brian De Palma

Thursday 10/09 The Sicilian Clan (1969) | Director: Henri Verneuil

Friday 11/09 Diabolik (1968) | Director: Mario Bava

Saturday 12/09 Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) | Director: Sergio Leone

Screenings' time of commencement: 20.30 

*Viewers are advised to bring mosquito-repellent, as well as a throw or blanket to spread on the ground.

Due to public health measures, there may be changes regarding either the staging of the event, or the maximum number of participants.