His repertory ranges from works by J.S. Bach to Elliott Carter, Kagel, Schnittke and young contemporary composers. Pieter Wispelwey was awarded the Elizabeth Everts Prize, an award given biennially to the Netherlands most promising musician in 1985. In 1992 Wispelwey received as first cellist the highly prestigious Netherlands Music Prize.

For many years he has given complete, widely acclaimed, performances of the suites for cello solo by J.S. Bach and Britten and the sonatas by Beethoven and Brahms, on period as well as on modern instruments.

Pieter Wispelwey is a regularly returning guest in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, performing the baroque, classical, romantic and modern repertory. In 1995 he appeared in recital a.o. in Hamburg, Leipzig, Duesseldorf, London, Brussels, Colmar, Saintes, Mulhouse, Sidney, Boston, Waashington, Montreal and Quebec.

In 1996 he is scheduled for concerts in Paris, Nantes, Marseille, Nice, Rome, Florence, Milan, Vienna, Salzburg, Hamburg, Bonn, Bremen, Antwerp, Bruges, Seoul, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Jakarta, London, Washington, Chicago, Ouebec, Montreal a.o. Pieter Wispelwey received his early training from Dicky Boeke and Anner Bijlsma in Amsterdam and continued his studies with Paul Katz (Rochester, USA) and with William Pleeth in England. The vast sonata repertoire for cello and piano he performs with several outstanding (forte)pianists: Robert Levin and Paolo Giacometti.

Wispelwey performs regularly as a soloist with orchestra and has recently played concertos by Dvorak, Elgar, Tchaikovski, Shostakovitch 1 and 2, Dutilleux, Ibert, Schnittke, Haydn, Beethoven (triple), Brahms (double) performing a.o. in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and with the Dutch and German Radio Chamber and Philharmonic Orchestras, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra from Amsterdam, the Philharmonic Ungarica, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Westdeutsche Sinfonia, the Stuttgarter Chamber Orchestra and Florilegium (London). In 1995 he made a highly successful tour of Australia with ABC Orchestras. His CD's with all Bach suites, Beethoven and Brahms Sonatas all received wide acclaim in the international press, several received international and national awards.

Coming years he will continue recording the major Sonata and Concerto repertory exclusively for the young quality label Channel Classics Records from Holland. In 1996 a CD with the Reger solosuites will be released. New recordings are scheduled with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra (Dvorak), and the Rotterdam Philhamonic Orchestra (Bartok).