Twelve candidates will participate in the competition’s final round from 25 to 30 May
The semi-final rounds of the 2026 Queen Elisabeth Competition were held from 11 to 16 May. 24 cellists each performed a recital programme, which included the competition’s imposed work Caffeine by Harold Noben; in addition to a concerto by Anton Kraft, Michael Haydn or Leopold Hofmann with the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie and Vahan Mardirossian.
Twelve cellists have now been selected to progress to the final round, which will take place at the Brussels Centre for Fine Arts, from Monday 25 to Saturday 30 May. Each evening, two finalists will perform with the Belgian National Orchestra, conducted by Antony Hermus.
The finalists will each perform a concerto of their own choice and the unpublished imposed work, Four Odes to the Tidings of Flowers, especially written for this year’s competition by Fang Man.
Each candidate will have one week to learn the imposed work, in isolation at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel.
The twelve finalists are:
Andrew Ilhoon Byun
Clara Dietlin
Tae-Yeon Kim
Yo Kitamura
Leland Ko
Álvaro Lozano Cames
Lionel Martin
Krzysztof Michalski
Dilshod Narzillaev
Ettore Pagano
Ivan Sendetsky
Maria Zaitseva
The jury for the final comprises Gilles Ledure (chairman), Natalie Clein, Roel Dieltiens, Valentin Erben, Ophélie Gaillard, Anne Gastinel, Marie Hallynck, Gregor Horsch, Anssi Karttunen, Daniel Müller-Schott, Sharon Robinson, Jian Wang and Sonia Wieder-Atherton.
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