In 2026, Belgium’s famous Queen Elisabeth Competition will celebrate a truly special edition.
It will be dedicated to the cello and also marks the 150th anniversary of Queen Elisabeth’s birth and 75th anniversary of the Queen Elisabeth Competition itself.
This year also marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Pablo Casals, one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century.
This coming year will highlight the Belgian Queen’s artistic and humanist legacy and the bond she shared with Casals, the renowned Catalan cellist.
A series of concerts, festivals, exhibitions, and participatory projects will mark this triple celebration, with the Cello Session the highlight of the spring.
Several cultural partners have joined forces to realize what is an extensive programme, including the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra / Koningin Elisabethzaal, Flagey, Bozar, and the Pau Casals Foundation.
Among the highlights of the 2026 edition is also the exceptional loan to the First Laureate of the 2026 Cello Competition of the Goffriller “Casals” cello (1733) by Pablo Casals.
Founded in 1937 as the Eugène Ysaÿe Competition, the Competition established itself from its very first edition as a global platform, bringing together prestigious juries and young soloists from leading international schools.
After the Second World War, it was revived in 1951 under its current name, the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition, and has become one of the most prominent competitions, initially for piano and violin, then from 1988 for voice, and since 2017, for the cello.
In a competition landscape that has become increasingly crowded, this continuity over nearly nine decades remains exceptional: few institutions so successfully combine fidelity to their roots with adaptation to new generations of artists.
This triple celebration will extend far beyond the Competition itself.
“Elisabeth Week” will kick things off in Antwerp and Waterloo, with pianist Sergei Redkin accompanied by the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and musicians from the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, in a dialogue between concerto and chamber music.
Later, “Queen’s Delight” will bring together ten laureates from different generations and disciplines at Flagey (as part of the Klarafestival) and DE SINGEL for a weekend where the Competition will be told through the stories of those who have shaped its history.
And in the spring, bpost will literally put Queen Elisabeth “in the post” with a commemorative stamp depicting her with her violin, against the backdrop of an autograph score by Eugène Ysaÿe, as a nod to the Competition’s origins.
Through these events and other initiatives aimed at young audiences and music lovers, the Competition will be brought to life throughout the year in concert halls, cities, and everyday life. Initiatives celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Queen’s birth will be identified by a common logo: “150 Years Queen Elisabeth.”
“What moves me about 2026 is the convergence of three powerful stories – Queen Elisabeth, Pablo Casals, and the Competition – with a new generation of young artists,”
emphasizes Marie Vander Elst, Interim Secretary General of the Competition.
“These anniversaries are an opportunity to ask ourselves what we truly pass on: not just a list of winners, but also a way of listening, working, and connecting with the public. This is what the 2026 candidates will be confronted with, far beyond the notion of a competition.”
