Pieter Wispelwey is among the first of a generation of performers who are equally at ease on the modern or the period cello. His acute stylistic awareness, combined with a truly original interpretation and a phenomenal technical mastery, has won the hearts of critics and public alike in repertoire ranging from JS Bach to Schnittke, Elliott Carter and works composed for him. Born in Haarlem, Netherlands, Wispelwey’s sophisticated musical personality is rooted in the training he received: from early years with Dicky Boeke and Anner Bylsma in Amsterdam to Paul Katz in the USA and William Pleeth in Great Britain. In 1992 he became the first cellist ever to receive the Netherlands Music Prize, which is awarded to the most promising young musician in the Netherlands. Highlights among future concerto performances include the Sydney Symphony, Japan Philharmonic, Sao Paulo Symphony, National Symphony of Ireland, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Musikkollegium Orchestra Winterthur, Edmonton Symphony, a tour in Scandinavia with the Muenchener Kammerorchester and in Belgium with the Flanders Symphony Orchestra. Forthcoming recital appearances include duo projects with the forte-pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout (Vienna Konzerthaus, London Wigmore Hall, Bruges Concertgebouw), pianist Cedric Tiberghien (Paris Theatre des Champs-Elysees Paris, Madrid Auditorio Nacional, London Wigmore Hall), solo recitals in Paris (Louvre), London (LSO St Luke’s, Wigmore Hall), Boston (Celebrity Series), Dortmund (Konzerthaus), Melbourne Recital Hall, Tokyo (Topan Hall), Beijing (National Performing Arts Centre), Seoul, Athens (Megaron Hall), as well as festivals in Amsterdam (Prinsengracht), France (Toulon, Beauvais), Poland (Wratislavia Cantans), Israel (Eilat) and tours in Italy, Germany and the North America..

Pieter Wispelwey has been the artistic director of the Beauvais Cello Festival in France since 2009, drawing together some of the finest cellists on the circuit for a week of cello recitals, concertos and chamber music, featuring an exciting range of new music for the instrument. Wispelwey’s career spans five continents and he has appeared as soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Boston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, St Paul’s Chamber Orchestra, NHK Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon, Tokyo Philharmonic, Sapporo Symphony, Sydney Symphony, London Philharmonic, Hallé Orchestra, BBC Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music, Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, Danish National Radio Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra and Camerata Salzburg, collaborating with conductors including Ivan Fischer, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Herbert Blomstedt, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jeffrey Tate, Kent Nagano, Sir Neville Marriner, Philippe Herreweghe, Vassily Sinaisky, Vladimir Jurowski, Paavo Berglund, Louis Langrée, Marc Minkowski, Ton Koopman, Libor Pesek and Sir Roger Norrington. With regular recital appearances in London (Wigmore Hall), Paris (Châtelet, Louvre), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw, Muziekgebouw), Brussels (Bozar), Berlin (Konzerthaus), Milan (Societta del Quartetto), Buenos Aires (Teatro Colon), Sydney (The Utzon Room), Los Angeles (Walt Disney Hall) and New York (Lincoln Center), Wispelwey has established a reputation as one of the most charismatic recitalists on the circuit Pieter Wispelwey plays on a 1760 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini cello and a 1710 Rombouts baroque cello.