Daniel Zapico was born in 1983 in Langreo, Asturias, Spain, and began specializing in theorbo in 1999 at the Conservatorio Profesional de Música in Langreo. He graduated with the highest grade from the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, alongside fellow theorbist Xavier Díaz-Latorre, and later completed a master’s degree in musicology and early-music performance at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, with a project on Robert de Visée praised unanimously by the exam board. He is a founding member of the ensemble Forma Antiqva and regularly performs with La Ritirata (led by cellist Josetxu Obregón), the Belgian Ricercar Consort, and in duo with his brother, baroque guitarist Pablo Zapico. He also teaches continuo and plucked strings at conservatories in Madrid and at the Academia de Música Antigua de Gijón.

Daniel Zapico has helped raise the profile of the theorbo as a solo instrument in Spain, most notably through his acclaimed solo album Au monde, a program of his own transcriptions of French Baroque repertoire that won a Diapason d’Or and was nominated for both MIN and ICMA awards. As a founding member of Forma Antiqva and a regular collaborator with La Ritirata and the Ricercar Consort, he has performed at major international festivals and worked alongside leading historically informed conductors including Leonardo García Alarcón and Riccardo Muti, while his theatrical solo project Arca ostinata has extended the theorbo’s reach into contemporary staged performance.

Sources:

• https://danielzapico.com/daniel-zapico/bio-en/
• https://www.schubertiada.cat/en/biografies-artistes/daniel-zapico-biografia