1. Experience sublime soundscapes
Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir creates slowly shifting, layered music full of subtle timbres and lyrical fragments. At Ars Musica, you can hear two of her more intimate works: Quatuor Diotima will perform Enigma, while Het Collectief will present Spectra. “Enigma is primarily about how the music breathes in and out, about the nuances, sounds and textures throughout the entire piece,” explains the composer. Her rich body of work can be explored throughout Bozar’s 2026–27 season: as a featured portrait artist, she will be the focus of seven concerts.
2. Discover a playful composer
Curiosity, playful imagination, humour and a profound sensitivity to the living world fuel Kristine Tjøgersen’s music. Her string quartet Mystérios do Corpo pays tribute to Brazilian jazz composer Hermeto Pascoal, known for his unconventional approach to making music — even using his own body as an instrument. In this piece, Tjøgersen translates physical movements into musical gestures. In her orchestral work Between Trees, she uses subtle sounds of nature to blur the boundaries between indoors and outdoors.
3. Hear an overwhelming collage
A choir, a big band, an orchestra and three conductors. That is all Simon Steen-Andersen needs for Trio. In this large-scale multimedia spectacle, the Danish composer incorporates familiar quotations from music history, bringing them into dialogue with archival footage from Südwestrundfunk (SWR). Brussels Philharmonic, Brussels Jazz Orchestra and Vlaams Radiokoor join forces for a collage in which past and present, music of yesterday and today, flow seamlessly into one another.
4. Delve deep into sound
During Maija Hynninen’s Lumen Boréal, musicians spread out across different rooms, and architecture becomes an ally of sound: you move through the work as though you were inside the sound itself. You can retreat into a space with a soloist and immerse yourself in a fragment, or experience the entire work, complemented by live recordings, in another room. The outstanding Ensemble Hopper will also perform Kaija Saariaho’s colourful Lichtbogen twice, complete with Nox Borealis, the immersive video installation by Jean Baptiste Barrière.
5. Move towards silence
In Schnee, Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen conjures up a sound world that subtly evokes snow. You hear footsteps crunching through fresh snow and moments of hushed winter melancholy. In this delicate work, tailor-made for Het Collectief, Abrahamsen incorporates music by Bach and, with restrained means, creates an impressive wealth of nuance and shading. In Vers le Silence, you can hear how Abrahamsen uses the orchestra to create an intensely focused movement towards silence. And in Anders Hillborg’s The Strand Settings, text, sound and silence explore one another.
