Robert Zappulla has been studying piano continuously since the age of six.  As an undergraduate, Robert studied the harpsichord with David Schulenberg, Raymond Erickson, and R. Peter Wolf at State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he was awarded a New York State Regents Scholarship.  He earned his BA in Music in 1981 and would go on to receive an MA and an MM at Rutgers University in 1985.  Robert’s MA was in Music History and Theory under Advisor Ellen Rosand, during which he wrote a Master’s Thesis on Luigi Mazzi’s “Ricercari a quattro et canzoni a quattro, a cinque, et a otto voci da cantare, e sonare con ogni sorte d'istrumenti.”  His MM was in Performance, continuing his studies with R. Peter Wolf on harpsichord.

Robert’s harpsichord skills were further refined when he received a United States Fulbright Grant to study harpsichord with Gustov Leonhardt and basso-continuo (sometimes referred to as ‘figured bass’) with Veronika Hampe at the Sweelink Conservatorium van Amsterdam from 1987 to 1988.

Although Robert’s interest in performing early music has intensified over time and has remained a major focus of his attention to this day, Robert has also nursed a fascination with the history and theory of music.  After studying in Amsterdam, a Graduate Scholarship led Robert to complete his AM in Musicology at Duke University in late 1988, continuing his harpsichord studies under Robert Hill. 

Robert would further indulge his interest in musicology by returning to the Netherlands to earn his Doctorate in Historical Musicology, specializing in the field of historical performance practices, at Utrecht University in 1998.  His doctoral dissertation, titled “Figured Bass Accompaniment in France c1650-c1775,” was supervised under noted scholars Rudolf Rosch and Paul Op de Coul.  With a preface by Tom Koopman, his dissertation was a groundbreaking and comprehensive study of the numerous French accompaniment treatises produced during that era.  Scholar David Ledbetter wrote of Robert’s dissertation, “…this book will take its place beside the works of Franck Thomas Arnold and Peter Williams…as a standard point of reference.”

Since then, Robert has spent many years serving as the Resident Harpsichordist and Musicologist of Zuckerman’s Harpsichords International, with which he has maintained a close relationship with since his departure in 2001 to teach music at the university level.

Today, Robert maintains an interest in performance and the harpsichord, and has appeared as keyboardist and director throughout North America and Europe, performing as soloist or continuist.  He has played with many other period instrumentalist and music ensembles, such as Con Gioia, the Angeles Consort, and the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra.  He currently directs Concordia Clarimontis, an early-music ensemble for which he is also the harpsichordist.  In the early 2000’s, he and fellow harpsichordist Igor Kipnis (who passed away in 2002) edited the “Encyclopedia of the Harpsichord and Clavichord.”

Robert is currently a Visiting Professor in the Department of Music at Claremont Graduate University.  He continues to perform in the Los Angeles area and is currently conducting research for his article, “Basso-Continuo Sources from the Low Countries,” due to appear in the music journal, Performance Practice Review, of which he is currently editor.