Stelvio Cipriani born 20 August 1937 in Rome is an Italian composer, notably for motion picture soundtracks. Though not coming from a musical background, as a child Cipriani was fascinated by his church's organ. His priest gave him his first music lessons and encouraged Cipriani and his family. Cipriani passed his examinations and studied at Santa Cecilia Conservatory from the age of 14, then played on cruise ship bands, that enabled him to meet Dave Brubeck. Upon return to Italy he accompanied Rita Pavone on piano. His first soundtrack was the spaghetti western El Precio de un Hombre/The Bounty Killer (1966) followed by a well known score for Un Uomo, uno caballo, una pistola/The Stranger Returns/Shoot First Laugh Last (1967) starring Tony Anthony (actor); Cipriani later composed other spaghetti western scores with Anthony. Cipriani became prolific in the Italian film world and was awarded a Nastro d'Argento Best Score for The Anonymous Venetian (film) (1970). In a 2007 interview, Cipriani said that he had composed music for Pope John Paul II and was currently working with Pope Benedict XVI. One of Cipriani's tracks from the film La polizia sta a guardare featured in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof.