Pieter Wispelwey.

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 Kontzerhaus Orchester Berlin, Hamburger Symphoniker, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic, RTE National Symphony Orchestra Dublin, Liège Philharmonic, Yiomiuri Nippon Symphony, Kollegium Musikum Winterthur, Wurttembergisches Kammerorchester, Uppsala Chamber Orchestra, as well as extensive European touring with the Scottish Ensemble, Emmanuel Krivine's Chambre Philharmonique, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the Symfonieorkest van Vlaanderen and the Kammerorchester Basel.

Forthcoming recital appearances include the New York's Linccoln Centre, London's Wigmore Hall Master Series and LSO St Luke's, Music at Oxford, Glasgow's City Halls, the Krönberg Academy, the Würzburg Festival, the Beethovenhaus Bonn, the Flanders Festival Leuven, Amsterdam's Prinsengracht Festival, the "Folles Journées" in Nantes and Tokyo, as well as tours in Germany, Japan and the United States. He will also be touring in a trio with Viktoria Mullova and Kristian Bezuidenhout, with performances in Konzerhaus Vienna, the Schwetzingen Festival, the Concertgebouw Brügge, and London's Wigmore Hall.

Pieter Wispelwey is also the artistic director of the Beauvais Cello Festival in France. The first edition of the festival under his leadership, in May 2009, gathered some of the finest cellists on the circuit for a week of cello recitals, concertos and chamber music, and featured 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, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, St Paul's Chamber Orchestra, 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 (Utson Hall), 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's discography, available on Onyx and Channel Classics, displays an impressive line up of over twenty recordings, six of which attracted major international awards. His most recent releases include Walton's Cello Concerto (Sydney Symphony/Jeffrey Tate) and Prokofiev's Symphonie Concertante (Rotterdam Philharmonic/Vassily Sinaisky), both recorded live. A unique set of works by Schubert for cello and piano (Fantasy D934, Grand Duo D574, Arpeggione Sonata), recorded on period instruments, will form his next release (Onyx) in Autumn this year.

Pieter Wispelwey plays on a 1760 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini cello and a 1710 Rombouts baroque cello.

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	Pieter Wispelwey