Paul McNulty (born 1953 in Houston, Texas)[1] is a piano builder specialising in historical pianos. He creates replicas of fortepianos after makers such as Silbermann, Stein, Walter, Graf etc.
McNulty studied classical guitar and lute at the Peabody Conservatory in 1976.[2] In 1978 he continued his studies at the New England School of Stringed Keyboard Instrument Technology. After attending a seminar at the Steinway factory in New York he was accepted for a technician position there, but chose a career of a fortepiano builder instead.
In 1986 McNulty moved to Amsterdam and then later to the Czech Republic. Since 1995 he has been living and working as a piano builder in Divišov. His fortepiano replicas are suitable for performing works of Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Mozart and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Classical musicians such as Paul Badura-Skoda, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Ronald Brautigam, Alexei Lubimov that are known for their performances and recordings on period instruments used McNulty's replicas in their concerts or purchased instruments for their own collections.
Paul McNulty was described by the New Grove Dictionary as "famous for the high standards of [his] instruments".[3]