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Famed for his inspired work with director Federico Fellini, Nino Rota was one of the most prolific and acclaimed film composers of his era, with a list of soundtrack credits ranging from La Dolce Vita to Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet to Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather. Born December 3, 1911 in Milan. Italy, Rota was a child prodigy who had already written an opera and an oratorio prior to his fifteenth birthday; he subsequently studied at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia as well as the Liceo Musicale in Bari, where from 1950 to 1978 he served as director. In 1933 Rota first entered the Italian film industry, scoring the "white telephone" romances and musicals prevalent during the era; before 1950, he composed the music for some 30 features, as well as the operas Torquemada and The Florentine Straw Hat. With the 1952 release Lo Sceicco Bianco, Rota teamed for the first time with Fellini; their 30 year collaboration was one of the most fruitful director-composer pairings...