Robert Zappulla

Robert Zappulla chairs Claremont Graduate University’s Music Department and holds the Fred W. Smith and Grace Hobson Smith Chair in Music. Known primarily as a harpsichordist and scholar specializing in the field of historical performance practices, Zappulla teaches a wide variety of courses at CGU, including (but not limited to) History of Performance Practices, History of Music Theory, Music Research Methodology and Bibliography, and courses on Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical music as well as the music of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, and Brahms.

A former harpsichord pupil (as Fulbright Scholar) of Gustav Leonhardt, Zappulla has appeared as soloist or continuist throughout North America and Europe and has directed and served as harpsichordist for the period-instrument ensemble, Concordia Clarimontis, since founding it in 2005. He has performed with many other period instrumentalists and ensembles, including Con Gioia, the Angeles Consort, and the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra. He is editor-in-chief of Early Keyboard Journal and Performance Practice Review, and he was consulting editor for Encyclopedia of the Harpsichord and Clavichord.

Zappulla authored a translation with commentary of Vincenzo Manfredini’s important Regole armoniche, a comprehensive18th-century treatise dealing primarily with Italian continuo practices. In his highly-regarded Figured Bass Accompaniment in France, Zappulla offers a monumental study of French accompaniment treatises produced during the 17th and 18th centuries, about which prominent scholar David Ledbetter wrote, “[T]his book will take its place beside the works of Franck Thomas Arnold and Peter Williams […] as a standard point of reference.” He also has written booklet notes for over a dozen recordings for the Dutch label, Brilliant Classics.

Zappulla is currently recording—for the prestigious American label with international reach, Delos (now owned by the Belgian publisher, Outhere Music)—selected harpsichord works by composer Louis Couperin (set to appear in early 2027) and Girolamo Frescobaldi.