Franco Sciannameo is Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Professor of Film Musicology at the School of Music, Carnegie Mellon University. Born in Italy, Violinist, Film Musicologist and Cultural Historian Franco Sciannameo studied in Rome at the Conservatorio di Musica “Santa Cecilia” (D.M. in Violin Performance, Literature, and Pedagogy), and later at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena and Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He holds advanced degrees in Historical Musicology and Cultural Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. Always concerned with the role of artists in society, Franco Sciannameo writes and lectures extensively on contemporary music and its relation to politics, cinema, and the arts. He has worked with a number of celebrated composers, including Giacinto Scelsi, Nino Rota, Ennio Morricone, Franco Donatoni, and Paul Chihara with whom he collaborated on many performances and recordings. Sciannameo’s articles and essays are featured regularly in The Musical Times (London) while his most recent books include Nino Rota’s The Godfather Trilogy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2010), Phil Trajetta (1777-1854), Patriot, Musician, Immigrant (CMS Monographs and Bibliographies in American Music, 2010), Music as Dream: Essays on Giacinto Scelsi (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013), Mediterranean Music and Modern Rituals: The Practice of Tarantismo in the Salento Area of Southern Italy (CMS Cultural Expressions in Music Monographs, in progress), and Experiencing the Violin Concerto: A Listener’s Companion (Rowman & Littlefield, in progress).