Traces Festival 2026
"For brighter times"

There’s no need to speak of the troubled world we live in. This edition offers only a few concerts of music born in dark times, yet music that refuses to let hope fade.

Come.
Listen to Francis Poulenc’s L’Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant, written in 1939 as Nazi troops marched along the Champs-Élysées.

Come.
Hear Grażyna Bacewicz’s string quartet, whose music survived in secret and defiance in underground concerts in wartime Warsaw. Step quietly - or not - into the atelier of resistance painter Marcel Hastir for a première like no other. At the MIM, join me and pianist Marisa Gupta for a recital of music that brings to life tales from Shakespeare to Charlie Chaplin.

Come.
Join us for these few concerts, moments where time pauses, in the hope that we might move, indeed, toward brighter times.

Philippe Graffin, February 2026

La Folia

4.03, 12:00 Musée des Instruments de Musique
Rue Montagne de la Cour 2, 1000 Bruxelles

Grażyna Bacewicz — String quartet no. 4
Luigi Boccherini — String quintets: op. 40/1 "Folias de España", op.51/1 (World premiere)
+ Post-concert croissants & coffee

Artists: Karski Quartet, Raphaël Feye
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-folia-by-the-karskis-traces-festival-2026-tickets-1982431922245

Un rendez-vous

6.03, 20:00 Atelier Marcel Hastir
Rue du Commerce 51, 1000 Bruxelles

Ludwig van Beethoven — Clarinet trio op. 11
Reinhold Gliere — 2 pieces for obœ and piano op. 35 no 3,4
Jean-Paul Dessy — Ten Tiny Variations on a Teeny Theme for piano solo, Isaïe for cello solo
Arnold Schœnberg — Ein Stelldichein for obœ, clarinet, violin, cello and piano

Artists: Khrystyna Korchynska, Rostyslav Kucher, Natalia Kotarba, Alexandre Debrus, Gauvain de Morant, Jean-Paul Dessy
Tickets: https://ateliermarcelhastir.eu/agenda/2026-03-06-festival-traces/

Kids Concert: Pour les petits — et ceux qui le sont restés

7.03, 11:00 Musée des Intruments de Musique
Rue Montagne de la Cour 2, 1000 Bruxelles

Francis Poulenc — L’Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant récit de Jean de Brunhoff
Alan Ridout — Ferdinand le petit taureau
Joël Hoffman — La Soupe de pierres

Artists: Marisa Gupta, Philippe Graffin, Jean-Philippe Altenloh
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pour-les-petits-et-ceux-qui-sont-restes-traces-festival-2026-tickets-1982395228493

Histoires sans paroles

7.03, 14:30 Musée des Intruments de Musique
Rue Montagne de la Cour 2, 1000 Bruxelles

Erich Wolfgang Korngold — Suite from Much Ado about Nothing op. 11
Igor Stravinsky — Divertimento from The fairy’s kiss arr. Dushkin / Stravinsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky / Nathan Milstein — Maria’s Aria from Mazeppa
Darius Milhaud — Le bœuf sur le toit — Cinéma-Fantaisie (original version for violin and piano), Music for an imaginary Charlie Chaplin movie

Artists: Philippe Graffin, Marisa Gupta
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/histoires-sans-paroles-traces-festival2026-tickets-1982437505946