Fresh from his First Prize triumph at the 2026 Queen Elisabeth Competition, Ettore Pagano returns to Brussels for a rare encounter between the Competition’s newest winner and one of the distinguished artists who sat on its jury. The young Italian cellist opens with Mendelssohn’s elegant Variations concertantes and Debussy’s groundbreaking Sonata before unleashing the virtuoso fireworks of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Figaro. Internationally acclaimed Belgian cellist and 2026 Queen Elisabeth Competition juror Marie Hallynck then takes the stage, joined by her long-standing chamber music partner Muhiddin Dürrüoğlu in Saint-Saëns’s passionate First Cello Sonata. Its fiery and dramatic outer movements frame a serene central Andante, revealing a work of striking intensity and lyricism. For the finale, Hallynck and Pagano are joined by Brussels Cello Festival Artistic Director Han Bin Yoon in Popper’s deeply moving Requiem for three cellos and piano. This exceptional meeting brings the Competition’s newest winner, one of its jurors and the festival’s artistic director together on a single stage, celebrating the moment when the applause of a great competition gives way to the next chapter of an artist’s journey.