Angelo Badalamenti (born March 22, 1937) is an American composer for film and television, best known for his hauntingly atmospheric work with filmmaker David Lynch, whose collaborations include Blue Velvet, Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Soundtrack Awards in 2008. Angelo Badalamenti was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States to an Italian family. He began taking piano lessons at age eight and spent much of his childhood listening to opera and classical music.