Classical

Sense of Place: Step inside the Roman studio where Ennio Morricone made magic

XPN | By Raina Douris,

Kimberly Junod

Published June 27, 2025 at 3:57 PM EDT

Ennio Morricone conducting in Studio A at Forum Studios in Rome.

There are few film composers who have created music as iconic as Ennio Morricone. Some of his most memorable soundtracks were recorded at Forum Studios, the recording studio he co-founded in 1969 alongside Armando Trovajoli, Luis Bacalov and Piero Piccioni.

When Morricone was there recording his score for the film Once Upon a Time in America, one of the people in the room was a 12-year-old kid named Marco Patrignani.

"I perfectly remember, as a young boy, running around the studio and experiencing the power of an orchestra, performing the amazing music of Ennio," he says.

Patrignani's parents ran the studio during that time. Now, he's in charge. As part of our Sense of Place: Rome series, Patrignani gives you a tour of Forum Studios, and he talks about taking care of this special place and all its history.

World Cafe host Raina Douris and Marco Patrignani at Forum Studios. — *World Cafe* host Raina Douris and Marco Patrignani at Forum Studios.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod. The web story was created by Miguel Perez. Our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.

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Raina Douris

Raina Douris, an award-winning radio personality from Toronto, Ontario, comes to World Cafe from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), where she was host and writer for the daily live, national morning program Mornings on CBC Music. She was also involved with Canada's highest music honors: hosting the Polaris Music Prize Gala from 2017 to 2019, as well as serving on the jury for both that award and the Juno Awards. Douris has also served as guest host and interviewer for various CBC Music and CBC Radio programs, and red carpet host and interviewer for the Juno Awards and Canadian Country Music Association Awards, as well as a panelist for such renowned CBC programs as Metro Morning, q and CBC News.

Kimberly Junod

World Cafe senior producer Kimberly Junod has been a part of the World Cafe team since 2001, when she started as the show's first line producer. In 2011 Kimberly launched (and continues to helm) World Cafe's Sense of Place series that includes social media, broadcast and video elements to take listeners across the U.S. and abroad with an intimate look at local music scenes. She was thrilled to be part of the team that received the 2006 ASCAP Deems Taylor Radio Broadcast Award for excellence in music programming. In the time she has spent at World Cafe, Kimberly has produced and edited thousands of interviews and recorded several hundred bands for the program, as well as supervised the show's production staff. She has also taught sound to young women (at Girl's Rock Philly) and adults (as an "Ask an Engineer" at WYNC's Werk It! Women's Podcast Festival).

Sense of Place: Step inside the Roman studio where Ennio Morricone made magic

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