Born in Madrid (Spain) in 1963, Marco Werba has lived in Rome, Italy since 1966. He is a versatile composer and has an extensive background in the music field, earning a Degree in Composition and Choral Conducting. He also studied at the Mannes College of Music in New York attending workshops in composition, orchestration and Film music. In addition, he studied conducting at the Academie de Guerande in France.
For the film music magazines Soundtrack and Cinemascore he interviewed a range of notables in the field including Jerry Goldsmith, Stanley Meyers, John Scott, Gabriel Yared and Philippe Sarde. He has served on the jury of the International Film Festival of Messina, and he created the film music workshop “Music for Images” and the international film music competition, the “Mario Nascimbene Award”.
His first musical score, in 1989, for director Cristina Comencini’s film Zoo won the prestigious Italian “Colonna Sonora” Award, when Ennio Morricone and Francis Lai, received “Colonna Sonora – Lifetime Achievement Awards”. Marco Werba has gone on to score a range of historical dramas including Anita–Una Vita per Garibaldi (Anita, a life for Garibaldi), and, in collaboration with Academy-Award winning composer Francis Lai, Amore e Libertà, Masaniello (Love of Freedom). He often works in the Horror and Thriller genres, most recently composing the soundtrack of Giallo, the pulp thriller by cult horror director Dario Argento, starring Adrien Brody. This score won the “Fantasy & Horror Award”, the “Fantafestival Award 2010” and the “Fantasy Horror Cine Festival Award 2011”.
He is noted for his work as a film score composer but has also written a number of classical concert pieces including Adagio for the victims of Auschwitz, Dark Symphony, Symphonic Tango and a “Piano Concert” in three movements.
In 2011 Marco Werba received the “Globo d’Oro” Award (“Golden Globes” of the Foreign Press Association in Italy) for the music of the thriller Native, directed by John Real.
Daniel Ingraham (Director)
Over the past several months, via the Internet, I’m gotten to know this very talented composer. As a producer and director, I would highly recommend Marco Werba as the composer for any serious filmmakers project. I do hope to begin a long and fruitful collaboration with him. His scores for the films “Darkness Surrounds Roberta” “Beast”, “Colour from the dark” and “Giallo” are excellent. Marco is a talented genius, who also happens to be a wonderful person.