When he performed for his neighbors as a child, Fabrizio Mancinelli already knew what he wanted: “One of my biggest dreams was, one day, to compose for Disney…”.
Natural talent and determination. Add a hint of fortune and, as in the best Disney tradition, dreams can come true.
Fabrizio was born in Trentino but he always lived in L’Aquila, where he graduated from the Conservatory in Composition and Conducting. He studied Film Composition with professors the likes of Luis Bacalov at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, and he worked as an assistant to Italian-American composer Gian Carlo Menotti at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto. He also graduated from Law School and passed the bar exam in Italy, but his strong ambition ultimately drove him overseas to Hollywood.
In 2008, he applied to the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship Program and was accepted by several universities. He chose the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, whose Graduate Certificate in Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television is particularly renowned. Among his professors was Christopher Young (Spiderman 3), and his mentor was the composer James Newton Howard (Pretty Woman, The Dark Knight). Studying at the USC, Fabrizio had the opportunity to work on different projects, including several short movies and, during an internship with Academy Award winning American composer of Italian descent Michael Giacchino, the celebrated TV series Lost.
Thanks to the professional experiences that he made in the United States, as well as to the intercession of a few enlightened managers, when he returned to Italy he began to collaborate with RAI Television, composing music for a number of TV series and programs like Mi Manda Raitre, Agorà, La Grande Storia, and orchestrating for Squadra Antimafia, Il XIII Apostolo and the movie When the Night. In addition, he also worked on a short film regarding the tragic 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila, starring Maria Grazia Cucinotta (Il Postino).
Unfortunately, in those years the economic situation in Italy was becoming more and more difficult, and still today it is very hard for young talents like Fabrizio to receive credit or to be paid for their work. “In the United States I can see a huge difference, nobody would ask you to work for free. I mean, sometimes it happens, sometimes the budget is low but you decide to accept the job anyway, because you believe in the project. In Italy there is no choice.”
Soon after returning to Italy, Fabrizio applied to a U.S. Visa granted to people possessing extraordinary abilities in a particular field, sponsored by his USC mentor Chris Young.
He came back to Los Angeles in 2011 and started composing original scores for short movies like From Vincent by Scott Hardie, with whom he had collaborated on the short The Family presented at Cannes Film Festival in 2010. He also assisted Golden Globe Award recipient Carlo Siliotto in composing the music for the acclaimed Mexican movie Instructions Not Included (2013).
Helped by modern technologies, he also continued to work remotely for RAI Television on the program Agora and on a series of documentaries dedicated to the Italian regions. “I am very attached to my heritage. I want to preserve these ties even if I moved to the U.S. and don’t think of going back.”
For this reason, Fabrizio often collaborates with the Italian Cultural Institute and other local associations on various initiatives. He was involved in the organization of the Republic Day celebrations on June 2, 2013, being in charge of the artistic direction. At the IIC, he gave classes and introduced screenings of some of the most famous Italian operas. “I am also a conductor and opera composer, which is very different from film composition since there are no images to draw inspiration from. It is just you and your inner music.”
In 2012, together with Saverio Rapezzi and Luigi Pulcini, Fabrizio founded the company Film Scoring Lab, creating original music and providing music production services for the audio-visual industry (film, TV, videogame, and multimedia). One of the company’s projects was the original music for Italy Art LA, the innovative smart-phone application launched by the Italian Cultural Institute in 2013.
But despite this growing success, Fabrizio’s childhood dream wasn’t completely fulfilled yet.
In 2008, while he was attending the USC School of Music in Los Angeles, he visited Walt Disney’s Carolwood Barn museum in Griffith Park, a collection of memorabilia for true fans like him. There, by chance, Fabrizio met some Disney Legends such as Michael Broggie, Alice Davis, Ted Thomas.
“They saw my passion, they could tell it was authentic. So we stayed in contact, and when in 2012 they needed a composer to work on the music for the documentary Growing up with 9 Old Men by Ted Theodore Thomas, they asked me to submit a demo. I send them 12 tracks, covering a wide range of music genres, as I really wanted to impress them. When it comes to people you know and regard with esteem, you definitely don’t want to let them down.”
The documentary, featuring Fabrizio’s original score, was included in the Walt Disney’s Peter Pan Blue Ray edition released in March 2013. “I fought for my dream, and finally I succeeded. It is just a small, first step, but yes, dreams come true.”
Fabrizio is now working on several projects both in Italy and the U.S., including the new edition of Agora and Squadra Antimafia, and the animation movie Mushka by Disney animator Andreas Deja (The Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin).
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