Festival Classissimo 2026

FREE ADMISSION for young people For its 20th edition, Festival Classissimo celebrates transmission and openness by offering free concerts for young people and students. An invitation to discover, to share, and to be surprised for an intense, festive musical week open to all. For twenty years, Classissimo has brought generations and musical worlds into dialogue. This anniversary edition is the perfect illustration of this: young talents and established artists meet on stage in a spirit of sharing and discovery. It is to Marc Grauwels, artistic director of the festival and internationally renowned flutist, that we owe this inventive and sensitive programming. Twenty years later, he continues to shape each edition with coherence, boldness, and generosity, weaving concert after concert, a vision of music that is intensely alive, curious, and open to the world. Seven evenings, a musical journey through the centuries The opening concert will immediately set the tone: Masters & Students reunited on stage, from Mozart to Gounod to the spectacular Carmina Burana by Orff, under the direction of Elena Lorgi, a young talent with the baton. Throughout the week, the festival offers an eclectic and ambitious journey: the splendor of French Baroque at the court of Louis XIV and XV, the burning colors of the music of Spain and Latin America (Albéniz, Villa-Lobos, Piazzolla), an evening of chamber music with the quintets of Mozart and Brahms performed by Valère Burnon, Belgian laureate of the Concours Reine Elisabeth, surrounded by four young virtuosos, a night at the opera (Verdi, Weber, Bizet) with the extremely rare cimbalom of Aleksandra Dzenisenia and 21 enchanted flutists, a dive into the world of tango with the Sonico Quintet, and finally a closing concert around Mozart where chamber orchestra and glass harmonica meet for an intimate and enchanting finale. Rare instruments, a permanent curiosity Cimbalom, glass harmonica, castanets: faithful to its spirit of discovery, Classissimo 2026 offers original experiences thanks to rare and unexpected instruments. Beyond its programming, Classissimo affirms more than ever its ambition: to make music accessible to all and to awaken the curiosity of new generations. An approach reinforced by the free admission granted to young people and students.