Silvio Amato (born April 10, 1961 in Catania,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

), is a composer of classical, contemporary and popular music, and film soundtracks. Currently, he resides in Marina del Rey, CA with his family. He previously resided in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

and maintains a studio in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, Italy

Early life

Amato is son of a distributor of children's clothing and a mother who did not care much for classical music. The used

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

his father brought home to "fill space" in the family's living room soon became an obsession for young Silvio who learned the instrument on his own despite his mother's constant pleas "I beg you Silvio, please, please, please stop playing." Eventually, he studied classical piano with a master teacher. Moving north to

as a young man, he established himself as a composer and arranger, working with a variety of popular and light classical artists as well as composing for television and motion pictures. It has been said that "his approachable music captures the vibrancy and romanticism of contemporary Italian culture, appealing to devotees of popular and classical genres alike."

Works

In 2008, shortly after his oldest daughter left home to study at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

in the United States, The Vatican commissioned him to compose a modern opera that would tie together common religious themes found in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Soon he and his wife and two younger children moved to Boston as well. "What more inspirational place than the birthplace of America – the melting pot of the people and religions of the world—to write music about spiritual concepts that unite people of faith?" he said in biography published at the Illuminessence website. In Milan he wrote ''Love, One Love'' for Mina Maria Quaini that was released in May 2010 and reached the top of the charts in Italy. He wrote ''Le Mama,'' performed by teen Francesco Pugliese, a finalist in 2010 series of Italian TV talent show ''Io Canto (I Sing)''. In 2010 and 2011, he updated and transformed a never-before-performed music of an unknown

composer, the late Walter Horvitz, into a musical currently titled ''Can't You See That I Am In Love.'' His light classical musical score for the fable '' The Happy Prince'' was performed by the La Scala Instrumental Ensemble of Milan (a chamber ensemble formed of key players in the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra). His ice ballets ''Snow White On Ice'', ''Beauty and the Beast On Ice'', and ''Peter Pan On Ice'' have been performed throughout Europe. Utah Regional Ballet in Provo, Utah used Amato's score for ''

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythi ...

'' to choreograph a full ballet, which it debuted in early 2011. The interfaith oratorio ''Illuminessence'' uniting the prayers and teachings of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...

and Islam, was scheduled to be premiered in Boston, Massachusetts on September 11, 2011, as part of the city's decennial commemoration of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

on America.''Politisphere'', August 2011

Soundtracks

He had a 10-year collaboration with Mediaset composing thematic music for network news programs, situation comedies and

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

s. In addition, he was undertaken substantial assignments with mainstream Italian and international television networks: The Italian public television network RAI (

Radiotelevisione Italiana RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terr ...

Telemontecarlo La7 is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned by Cairo Communication. Until 2013 it was a pay-per-view channel owned by Telecom Italia Media and operated by Telecom Italia. Signal overspill means that parts of Albania, Croatia, Swit ...

La7 La7 is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned by Cairo Communication. Until 2013 it was a pay-per-view channel owned by Telecom Italia Media and operated by Telecom Italia. Signal overspill means that parts of Albania, Croatia, Swi ...

(Telcom Italia Media's entertainment network) and

British Sky Broadcasting Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...

. Amato has written

soundtracks A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

for motion pictures including ''

Can't Hardly Wait ''Can't Hardly Wait'' is a 1998 American teen romantic comedy film written and directed by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont. It stars an ensemble cast including Ethan Embry, Charlie Korsmo, Lauren Ambrose, Peter Facinelli, Seth Green, and Jenni ...

'' with

Mel Brooks Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. He began ...

, ''The Mythica'' by Carlo Vanzina, ''Ti Oglio Bene Eugenio'' with Giuliana De Sio and Giancarlo Giannini, and the film by Jerry Calà ''I Live Alone.'' In addition, Amato made major contributions to the epic documentary about Sicily, produced by Mediaset.

References

External links

*
Illuminescence
' website; includes list of professional credits * Backstage look and interview about ''The Happy Prince''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amato, Silvio 1961 births Composers from Sicily Musicians from Catania Musicians from Boston Living people 20th-century Italian composers 20th-century American composers