Two major Brussels music institutions joined forces on May 19 to present their season plans for 2026-2027, and the result is impressive. The Belgian National Orchestra (BNO) and BOZAR present a season that simultaneously looks back and ahead, that honors traditions and pushes boundaries.
Festive season with new ambitions
The BNO celebrates its ninetieth anniversary. That milestone is not passed quietly: the orchestra resolutely chooses renewal, with a completely new house style under the striking slogan "Nice to meet you". More colorful, more accessible, more contemporary – the words the BNO uses itself, but this time they are also put into practice. The season opens on September 5 with a free open house day, a gesture with which the orchestra wants to bring itself closer to a broad audience. The actual opening concert follows on September 11 with Russian pianist Anna Vinnitskaya.
BOZAR for its part chose "Reassembling" as the guiding principle of the new season – reconnecting, between past and future, between disciplines and target audiences. That ambition sounds familiar, but the program gives it convincing substance. South African artist William Kentridge, appointed as BOZAR's first Grand Invité, embodies that cross-pollination par excellence. With his charcoal drawings, shadow play and filmic collages, he reminds us that art does not arise from harmony, but from fault lines, memory and confrontation. His work, born from the scars of apartheid and historical upheaval, almost literally embodies what BOZAR means by this reconnection: art as an attempt to make fragments of history readable again. His multidisciplinary practice runs through the entire season: he created an intriguing film as a visual pendant to Dmitri Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony (the Staging the Concert format), and on September 18 the BNO will share the stage with him for a cine-concert.
Portrait series as a mirror of the season
BOZAR's portrait series deserve special attention. Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir is given seven concert moments, including a special performance of Metaxis in the Ravensteingalerij, with the BNO spread across the space (June 21, 2027). Soprano Jeanine De Bique brings her Caribbean background into dialogue with Mozart and Händel, pianist Pavel Kolesnikov charts a path from Baroque to contemporary repertoire, and American electronic pioneer Jlin shows that the boundaries between acoustic and electronic are increasingly blurring.
Those who love Stravinsky should reserve their calendar for early February 2027. BOZAR and the BNO together dedicate a festival to the Russian master, including Le Sacre du Printemps, Petrushka and the Psalm Symphony. The historical layering of the festival also emerges from the Echoes of Brussels series, in which the BNO reminds us that Belgian painter Jean Brusselmans designed the sets for the Brussels premiere of Schoenberg's Erwartung at BOZAR ninety years ago.
Also notable is the special programming around contemporary themes. On October 17, young Belgian filmmaker Dimitri Sterkens presents a film about radioactive waste and the legacy we leave for future generations – music by Britten, Philip Glass, Hildur Guðnadóttir and Max Richter sounds like the ideal soundtrack. And in November, jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant performs with the BNO in symphonic arrangements – an encounter that momentarily makes us forget the language divide between jazz and classical. Also worth noting is the tribute to John and Alice Coltrane (one hundred and ninety years respectively in 2026-2027), with concerts by Flat Earth Society, Aaron Parks and Ravi Coltrane – the latter honoring his mother on International Women's Day.
BOZAR also introduces a new subscription series around the string quartet – perhaps the purest form of musical dialogue. Four voices, sixteen strings, one breath. It fits perfectly with the central idea of the season: listening as a form of bringing together. The Start to Classic series is also worth mentioning: it deliberately opens the door to new listeners via monumental gateway works such as Rimski-Korsakov's Sheherazade.
International allure and artistic transition
BOZAR also welcomes top international pianists again this season. Grigory Sokolov (December 15), Hélène Grimaud (March 19) and Bruce Liu (May 14) make their appearance in the Henry Le Boeuf Hall – and do so for the first time on BOZAR's brand new Steinway concert grand piano, purchased in January. An instrument that, as one would expect, will only sharpen the personality of each of these three very different performers.
The major international orchestras are also making themselves heard. The Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst opens the series on October 8, followed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Kazuki Yamada on November 14. The finale is perhaps the most ambitious: the Budapest Festival Orchestra with Iván Fischer brings Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on April 4, 2027 – performed with a pan-European choir composed of singers from all EU member states. In times of political fragmentation, a statement that the music itself hardly needs to underscore.
The BNO also performs outside the capital this season, with around twenty concerts in cities such as Antwerpen, Gent, Brugge, Leuven, Hasselt and Roeselare. And internationally: from 28 October to 4 November the orchestra travels to Japan on the occasion of 160 years of diplomatic relations between Belgium and Japan, with a concert in the legendary Suntory Hall as the highlight. There follows a reunion with former chief conductor Mikko Franck – a meeting that will likely be as moving as it is festive.
Artistically, the BNO is at a transitional moment. The term of chief conductor Antony Hermus comes to an end, after 65 concerts in four seasons. Intendant Bob Permentier emphasizes his warm personality and boundless enthusiasm as a lasting legacy. Hermus will return next season as Conductor Laureate. His successors as Artistic Partners are Matthew Halls and Eivind Aadland, each leading two productions. Michael Schønwandt returns three times as principal guest conductor.
Finally, the BNO reinforces its educational commitment with open rehearsals, school concerts, workshops and collaborations with the Musical Instruments Museum. The first edition of Acoustic Power at BOZAR and the return to Concertgebouw Brugge for secondary school students are concrete realizations of that ambition.
"Nice to meet you" says the BNO. "Reassembling" answers BOZAR. Two slogans, one direction: classical music broadens its perspective and extends a hand. As if BOZAR reads itself anew as Horta once designed it: not as a collection of halls, but as a living machine of circulation – of ideas, emotions and encounters. It is up to us to take that hand.