After graduating from high school and bachelor’s degree at the Lugano Conservatory as a student of Taisuke Yamashita, the Ticino cellist Mattia Zappa continued his music studies in Harvey Shapiro’s soloist class at the Juilliard School in New York.

He enjoyed the support of foundations such as Migros Kulturprozent and Pierino Ambrosoli-Zurich. Mattia Zappa completed his soloist diploma with Thomas Demenga at the Basel Music Academy in 1998. This was followed by a master’s degree in sonata repertoire at the Accademia Pianistica in Imola (Bologna) under the direction of Pier Narciso Masi. A year earlier he was awarded the European Music Prize “for artistic talent and outstanding performance” for his interpretation of the Rococo Variations by Tchaikowsky.

Mattia Zappa has been a member of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich since September 2000 and was also hired by the Berliner Philharmoniker as a temporary worker in 2007.

In spring 2008 his first CD with the Three Sonatas for Cello and Piano by Bohuslav Martinu was released on Claves Records and immediately received the Supersonic Award & Joker-Crescendo Award. In winter 2010 the CD “Lux Nordica” followed on the same label, with a fascinating Scandinavian program with works for cello and piano by J.Sibelius and E.Grieg. Further albums on the DECCA Italy label (Silent Woods, Vis-à-Vis, #WeAreBrahms).

In recent years Mattia Zappa has played the entire cycle of the Six Solo Suites by Johann Sebastian Bach and various transcriptions in concert, and in summer 2008 she presented the First and Sixth Suite as part of the Lucerne Festival.

With the support of the Muri Foundation for Classical Music, a new CD by the duo Zappa.Mainolfi will be released by Decca Italy in autumn 2020 with the sonatas by Johannes Brahms.

Numerous appearances as a member of the string trio “lucerne string trio”, the “Swiss Cellist” and in the “Chamber Jazz Duo”