Wieland Kuijken graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in 1962 with a diplôme supérieur in cello. In the course of his studies, he taught himself to play the viola da gamba, and became interested in the performance practices of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His career in early music began with L’ Ensemble Alarius de Bruxelles (from 1959 to 1972). At the same time, he expressed his great interest in avant-garde music with the ensemble Musique Nouvelle.

Wieland Kuijken is well known as a teacher. He taught viola da gamba from 1972 until 2003 at the conservatories of Brussels and The Hague; throughout these thirty years he trained professional gambists from all over the world. He has also given many master classes at Innsbruck, in the United States, and in Japan. He regularly participates as a jury member for international competitions (Bruges, Paris, Amsterdam, Boston, Utrecht, Leipzig, ). He is a founding member, with his brothers, of the orchestra La Petite Bande and the Kuijken String Quartet.

He counts among his achievements an important discography devoted to chamber music and the viola da gamba repertoire. As a cellist, his interpretations of the suites by Bach are famous.