Valter Dešpalj (5 November 1947 – 9 April 2023) was a Croatian cellist and a professor at the Zagreb Academy of Music.

He also took master classes with P. Casals, P. Fournier and A. Navarra, and did two years of postgraduate study with G. Kozolupova at the Moscow Conservatory.

He was soloist with orchestras including Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Dresden Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Dutch Radio Orchestra, Washington National Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony and others, under baton of eminent conductors such as Roberto Benzi,[7] Sergiu Comissiona, James Conlon, Vernon Handley, Günther Herbig, Hiroyuki Iwaki, Andrzej Markowski, David Zinman and others.

Among his chamber music partners were Gidon Kremer, Yo-Yo Ma, Heinrich Schiff, Philippe Entremont, Yuri Bashmet, Tabea Zimmermann, Irena Grafenauer, Dmitry Sitkovetsky and Alexandre Rabinovitch.

Besides teaching in Zagreb, he has also been a guest professor at the conservatories in The Hague, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Graz (University of Music),[8] editor of cello music with major music publishers, and member of judging panels at the most prestigious international competitions including Tchaikovsky (Moscow), Bach (Leipzig) and ARD (Munich) competitions.