Ikigaï

Step into the 2025–2026 Music Season

This season, the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel continues its tireless pursuit of artistic excellence, inspired by a way of life born in Japan: ikigai — a deep, personal and shared search for meaning, serving as a compass in all that we do.

An invisible thread connects talent with dedication and purpose, passion with self-exploration and deeper meaning. In a world full of uncertainty and constant change, ikigai invites us to slow down, to listen, to feel — and to find balance between the intimacy of artistic expression and our place in the world.

It is precisely within this space that we see our Artists in residence grow — young musicians at the dawn of their careers, guided by exceptional Masters, exploring their own voice, their own path.

Our ikigai season will be a season of essence — of the works, of course, but also of the living connections woven between artists, and between artists and their audiences.

A season of resonance between generations, where the experience of some illuminates the momentum of others; between cultures, which respond to, enrich, and discover one another through the universal language of music; and between disciplines, when music enters into dialogue with dance, theatre, spoken word or visual art.

In this space of transmission and creation, ikigai becomes both engine and matter — a breath that brings meaning to artistic commitment and presence on stage.

Each performance becomes a moment of deep listening — to oneself, to others, to the world — where the echo of this search for balance between the individual and the universal continues to resonate.

Through each concert, each project, each meeting with the public, we seek to answer a question that is (not so) simple, yet essential: why do we do what we do?

And perhaps, to reframe it in music.