Largely self-taught, at around the age of 12, Zappa became interested in drumming. In 1953, he attended a Summer course where he learnt the basics of playing the drumkit. In 1954, he composed his first piece, of which no trace remains. His second work, Mice, for solo snare drum, was composed soon thereafter, the score of which is housed in the composer’s archives.

At around the age of 14, Zappa became familiar with the music of Edgard Varèse and, thanks to a teacher at the Mission Bay High School in San Diego, with serial music. At age 15, he joined the R&B group The Ramblers as the drummer, and performed in his first concerts. He was also the drummer of the group The Blackouts in 1957-58. At around this time, Zappa became fascinated with the guitar solos that featured in R&B music, avidly collecting recordings of artists such as Johnny “Guitar” Watson and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, among others, and took up the instrument himself.

In 1958, Zappa conducted the Antelope Valley Junior College Orechstra in some performances of his own works. In 1959, an English teacher that he had met three years earlier at Antelope Valley High School, Don Cerveris, asked Zappa to compose an orchestral score for the film Run Home, Slow (the film, directed by Tim Sullivan, a.k.a. Ted Brenner, was not released until December 1965). After graduating from secondary school, Zappa undertook studies in music in any way that he could, e.g., attending a Summer course at the Idyllwild Art & Music School in 1958, a few weeks of music theory lessons at Chaffey Junior College in Alta Loma (1960), and composition classes with Karl Kohn at Pomona College in Claremont (1961).

In addition to his talent as a musician, Zappa excelled in visual arts, winning a poster design competition in 1955 and a California statewide competition in 1958. In 1960, he worked designing greeting cards and advertisments. That same year, he met Paul Buff, a sound engineer that had built his own studio, the Pal Recording Studio. As a multi-instrumentalist himself, Buff hired Zappa as his assistant and as an in-house musician and composer, with the goal of producing hit surf music records. This enterprise saw little success, and Buff ultimately ceded control of his studio to Zappa, who was able to fund the transaction after having finally received payment for his work on Run Home, Slow. On 1 August 1964, the studio was renamed Studio Z.

In the beginning of the 1960s, Zappa worked with various groups as a guitarist, while simultaneously establishing himself as an experimental composer. In March 1963, he appeared on the The Steve Allen Show to perform his Concerto for two bicycles, pre-recorded sounds and ensemble with the studio orchestra. In May of that year, Zappa conceived a concert programme titled “The Experimental Music of Frank Zappa,” which he proposed to Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles. In 1964, he developed the concept of the rock opera through the composition of I Was A Teen-age Malt Shop (he returned to this genre with Joe’s Garage in 1979 and Thing Fish in 1984), and wrote his first film script, Captain Beefheart vs. The Grunt People. Over the course of his career, Zappa wrote, produced, and directed several films, such as 200 Motels (1971), Baby Snakes (1979), Video From Hell (1987), etc.

In May 1965, the rock group led by Zappa changed its name to “The Mothers” (as the name was considered offensive by some, it was appended with “of Invention” before the release of the album Freak Out! in 1966). Although The Mothers of Invention, which transformed into an “electric chambre ensemble,” disbanded in 1969, Zappa would lead professional ensembles and perform his own compositions throughout his career. His music came to be characterised as a mixture of popular and highbrow styles, with lyrics severely critical of American politics and the “American way of life”, and with a distinct sense of humour that often bordered on vulgarity. Despite a preference for working with large ensembles and instrumental music, Zappa deftly adapted to financial constraints which forced him to tour with small groups (e.g., his “rockin’ teenage combo”) and to compose “songs.”

Zappa has been cited as an influence by a number of musicians working in various genres (rock, jazz, concert music, etc.) who seek to transgress musical boundaries. His peers who have had the acumen to look beyond the image of the “vulgar clown”, as he was portrayed by the media, have discovered a composer that was worthy of attention. For example, Pierre Boulez agreed to collaborate with Zappa on the performance and recording of several of the latter’s works (Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger, Angel, 1984). Recognition from Boulez opened the eyes of many to the merits of Zappa’s work. For example, while at IRCAM, Kent Nagano learnt that there was to be a collaboration between Boulez and Zappa, and as such, that Zappa also composed “serious” music. The subsequent correspondence between Zappa and Nagano culminated in the premieres of several of Zappa’s works with the London Symphony Orchestra and the release of the first record of the LSO under Nagano’s direction, London Symphony Orchestra Vol. 1, Barking Pumpkin, in 1983.

Zappa toured the world as a rock performer for the last time in 1988 with a group comprising some twelve musicians. His final performance took place in September 1992, when he conducted the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt. On 4 December 1993, he died of prostate cancer. His discography, which is managed by the Zappa Family Trust and which already comprises some 60 titles, continues to grow through the release of archival and bootleg material.