Pietro Zappalà

Graduated in Musicology at the University of Pavia in 1985, he earned a PhD in Musical Philology and Ecdotics in 1992. He initially worked as a Librarian (1988–1994) and then as a Researcher (1994–2004) at the Faculty of Musicology (now the Department of Musicology and Cultural Heritage) at the University of Pavia, where, since 2005, he has been an Associate Professor of “Musicology and History of Music.”

His scholarly work spans both musicology and music librarianship/bibliography. His musicological interests focus on 18th- and 19th-century composers (Locatelli, Rolla, Mendelssohn, Bottesini, Ponchielli), whose works and documents he has rediscovered and published. His library science research addresses theoretical and practical issues in cataloguing, as well as the identification, definition, and cataloguing of music collections; his bibliographic studies reflect a strong interest in thematic catalogs.

He co-founded the Italian section of the International Association of Music Libraries and Archives and served as its vice president during the first six years of its activity. He has organized a master’s program for the training of music librarians. Between 2002–2006 and 2011–2014, he participated in nationally significant projects funded by the Ministry of University and Research. More recently, he has developed and continues to lead projects for the digitization of historical collections at the Department of Musicology and Cultural Heritage (including manuscripts and early music editions) and of the historical audio collection (shellac records, vinyl, and piano rolls).