Dutch conductor and composer Tjalling Wijnstra began his musical career as an accordionist. He studied at the Municipal Conservatory in Groningen with Egbert Spelde and then at the Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen with Danish accordionist Mogens Ellegaard. He then studied orchestral conducting successively with Lucas Vis, Joop van Zon and Roland Kieft at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam.

From 2005 to September 2011, he served as Kapellmeister and choirmaster at Opera Zuid in Maastricht. During this period, he assisted in all opera productions of Opera Zuid together with Het Brabants Orkest and the Limburg Symphony Orchestra and also conducted performances of Mozart's Don Giovanni, Bizet's De Parelvissers and Carmen, Lehar's Die Lustige Witwe, Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Strawinsky's Mavra and Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier.

From 2017 he has been musical director and conductor at Opera Spanga, in recent years conducting here La Traviata and Aida by Verdi, Pagliacci by Leoncavallo and Il Tabarro by Puccini and Carmen by Bizet, this together with Philharmonie Noord. Aida by Verdi, the 2018 performance, he also conducted in Malta as part of Leeuwarden Cultural Capital 2018, here with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra. During the coronacrises, Tjalling conducted the music of the opera film The Other by Floris van Bergeijk. This was followed by After the Flood (created by conservatory composition students led by Floris van Bergeijk), Jevgeni Onegin by Tchaikovsky and Otello by Verdi/van Bergeijk. In 2022, he conducted his own composition Madam Scrooge on a libretto by Irma Achten.

Since October 2019, he has been artistic director and permanent conductor of Philharmonie Noord.

From the beginning of his career, Tjalling Wijnstra has composed and over the years this has become an increasingly essential part of his work.
He composes chamber music, works for soloists, choir and orchestra, theater music, film and game music and opera. In 2022, he composed the opera Madam Scrooge for Opera Spanga. In November 2024, his major work for soprano, youth choir, chorus and orchestra: Earth Canto was premiered. He wrote this work commissioned by the Royal Toonkunstkoor Concordia in Leeuwarden.