Kris Defoort & Stephane Ginsburgh

Where Is Home? 

Coming home in music

A man steps onto the stage, cello in hand. He looks out into the concert hall, spreads his arms and says, ‘Welcome. Tonight, you are not listeners, but participants. Our meeting is an exchange.’ Then he begins to sing and play, and everything becomes clear. He absorbs the audience’s energy like a human antenna and returns it tenfold. The concert hall shifts into an intimate living room. Everyone who witnessed it walks away transformed. 

This is essentially how a concert by Abel Selaocoe unfolds. Together with this charismatic cellist, singer and composer, we warmly welcome you to the 21st Klarafestival. As a festival artist, Selaocoe will play three concerts spanning the full spectrum of his musical world. From traditional music from his native South Africa to baroque, jazz, contemporary classical and improvisation: he melds all these influences into a unique body of work, centred on identity and cultural exchange.

The theme of this year's festival is taken from the debut album of Selaocoe’s own Bantu Ensemble: Where Is Home? It is an open question with endless answers – especially in the super-diverse city of Brussels, home to 180 nationalities and 100 languages. Our capital is a crossroads, a refuge, a temporary or permanent home for countless individuals, each carrying their own story. Every day, we feel privileged that our festival can take root in such fertile soil.

Klarafestival 2026 is an ode to the city we call home. During Muziekberg/Mont des Musiques, Brussels musicians will take over the Kunstberg (Mont des Arts) for a day, from the Musical Instruments Museum to Bozar, from the Ravenstein Gallery to the Royal Museums of Fine Arts. And both Radio Lomax and the choir Les Invisibles (La Voix des Femmes Sans Papiers) will perform Brussels songs with diverse roots.

Our mission is to show as wide an audience as possible that classical music is alive and kicking. Even the most familiar works take on fresh life in the hands of the adventurous musicians we surround ourselves with. Prepare to be captivated by Bach's St John Passion as conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev. Marvel at Beethoven and Strauss with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg. Rediscover Chopin and Scriabin in a performance by Alexandre Kantorow. Or encounter keyboard phenomenon Anthony Romaniuk: like Abel Selaocoe, he intertwines his own compositions with the established repertoire, from Bach to Björk.  

This festival programme features many more musical kindred spirits. Annelies Van Parys completed the 8th symphony of her former teacher Luc Brewaeys. Pianists Kris Defoort and Stephane Ginsburgh pay tribute to their friend Philippe Boesmans, who would have turned 90 in 2026. Abel Selaocoe, in turn, improvises with like-minded souls, both old and new, and performs a brand-new cello concerto by American composer Jessie Montgomery. 

None of this would be possible without the support of our partners in Brussels and beyond. Bozar, Flagey, De Munt, Ancienne Belgique, Brussels Philharmonic, Belgian National Orchestra, Passa Porta, BNA-BBOT and the Luc Brewaeys Foundation all contribute to Klarafestival’s unique DNA. Our indispensable private partners include KPMG Belgium, Proximus, Brugse Zot, Gimv/WorxInvest and Interparking. We are grateful for the support of the Flemish Community, the Flemish Community Commission, the Brussels-Capital Region and the National Lottery. Our collaboration with VRT and Klara, meanwhile, is the secret to our success as a broadcasting festival. Above all, we thank our enthusiastic audience who follow us both in the concert hall and at home on the radio and VRT MAX. 

For Abel Selaocoe, ‘home’ is much more than a building or a place. 'It can be a spiritual space. It can be people. (...) It can be something you find along your travels.’ For seven years, Klarafestival has been ‘home’ for festival director Joost Fonteyne. His sense of adventure and social connection is more evident than ever in this festival programme. In April 2026, he will continue his journey and pass the torch to Jan Van den Borre. Many thanks, Joost, for the wonderful years!

The Klarafestival Team

Joost Fonteyne, intendant

Jan Raes, chairman

Chantal Pattyn, network manager Klara

‘Philippe Boesmans was a very dear friend; I knew him for over forty years and he was a kind of artistic father figure for me. Throughout all those years, we saw each other at least once a week for a ‘gastronomic rendezvous’. During those meetings we discussed all manner of topics, from humanity to our work. Those conversations were always full of humour, tenderness and a certain ‘serious light-heartedness’. Philippe and I shared the same vision and approach to creation and work: every day we composed — through trial and error —, starting from a blank page that, slowly but surely, over the years, developed into a real opera or some other composition. Time after time we were surprised by what emerged from our ‘deepest recesses’.

Kris Defoort

‘Much of what we shared was about music, with an indelible memory of a first meeting in the early nineties, in connection with Sur Mi (with Le Bureau des pianistes). There were also the gastronomic get-togethers that marked my rare but always lively encounters with Philippe. The first took place just after Sur Mi, where we enjoyed veal sweetbreads in a restaurant near the Naamsepoort and spoke freely about our families and our backgrounds. Or a second time, in 1993, when I was a student at the Conservatoire de Liège, where Philippe’s presence was still palpable, and I had just performed Cadenza for my Higher Diploma. Much later, another special and wonderful moment followed at my home, with Camille De Rijck and Sylvain Cambreling. On the table was a carefully prepared waterzooi, which Philippe had simmered in a Le Creuset pan. When we said goodbye after the meal, I promised that I would cook a blanquette for him.’

Stephane Ginsburgh

Kris Defoort

The versatile pianist and composer Kris Defoort moves between classical music, opera, jazz and improvisation. In the late 1980s, he spent several years working as a jazz pianist in New York, before establishing his name in Belgian contemporary jazz and classical music. His operas commissioned by La Monnaie have been performed throughout Europe: The Woman Who Walked into Doors (2001), House of the Sleeping Beauties (2009) and The Time of Our Singing (2022), for which he received the International Opera Award for best world premiere. Defoort composed the commissioned work for the Queen Elisabeth Competition twice and was awarded the Flemish Culture Prize for Music in 2003.

Stephane Ginsburgh

Belgian pianist Stephane Ginsburgh combines his passion for contemporary music with original interpretations of the classical repertoire. He has performed works by composers such as Stefan Prins, Jean-Luc Fafchamps, Philippe Boesmans and Frederic Rzewski. In his concert practice, he has a penchant for large-scale projects, such as performances of the complete sonatas of Prokofiev or Ustvolskaya, or marathon concerts with music by Morton Feldman or Beethoven's last six sonatas. Ginsburgh is a professor at the Haute école de musique de Genève and was artistic director of the Centre Henri Pousseur electronic music studio in Liège between 2010 and 2013.