Bill Conti

Bill Conti

Biography

William "Bill" Conti (b. 13 April 1942, Providence, R.I.) is an American composer and conductor.

Mr. Conti, graduated from North Miami High School in 1959. He is a past winner of the Silver Knight Award presented by the Miami Herald. He is a graduate of Louisiana State University, and also studied at the Juilliard School of Music.

Mr. Conti's big break into celebrity came in 1976, when he was hired to compose the music for a small United Artists film called Rocky. The film became a phenomenon. Conti's training montage tune, Gonna Fly Now, topped the Billboard singles chart in 1977, and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. The film won three Oscars at the 49th Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The same ceremony was also the first time Conti served as musical director for the Academy Awards, which he has done 18 times subsequently, more than anybody else.

Conti also composed music for the sequels Rocky II (1979), Rocky III (1982), Rocky V (1990) and Rocky Balboa (2006).

Conti also worked for some other films and, eventually, for television series. In 1981, he wrote the music for the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only and provided the score for playwright Jason Miller's film version of his Pulitzer Prize winning play That Championship Season the following year.

Works for Winds

• Bill Conti’s Famous TV Themes (arr. Kennedy) (2009)
• Fanfare for Rocky (arr. Iwai)
• For Your Eyes Only (arr, Thingnaes) (1998)
• Gonna Fly Now (arr. Iwai) (1976/2008)
• He Man and the Masters of the Universe (arr. Ratnik) (2011)
• North and South (arr. Kabat) (2016)
• The Right Stuff (arr. Barry) (2011)
• Rocky (arr. Lowden) (1977)
• Rookie of the Year (arr. Daehn) (1993/2013)
• Symphonic Suite from "The Right Stuff" (arr. Curnow) (1983/1984)

Resources

• Bill Conti, Wikipedia Accessed 29 May 2018
• Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. "Bill Conti." Accessed 29 May 2018