Digital first round MA Competition 2026

MA Competition

This year, MA Festival is organizing a new edition of MA Competition for harpsichord!

MA Competition — started in 1964 — has developed into an unrivalled talent pool as a prestigious international music competition. MA Competition is a unique platform for training and professional integration of young artists, with the aim of discovering new talent and making new encounters possible. Its uniqueness stems from its place at the heart of MA Festival. The competition accelerated the international career of many well-known musicians, including Christophe Rousset (°1961), Kristian Bezuidenhout (°1979), Dmitry Sinkovsky (°1980), Jean Rondeau (°1991) and Justin Taylor (°1992). The first round will be broadcast digitally over the weekend of May 15-17. At the end of this weekend, the jury will select 12 harpsichordists who will travel to Bruges during MA Festival.

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An international jury

The judges for this edition are Korneel Bernolet (chairman), Richard Egarr, Béatrice Martin, Mitzi Meyerson and Jean Rondeau.

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Digital first round

During the digital first round of MA Competition 2026 in May, you can discover all candidates during a live stream for three days. At the end, twelve candidates will be selected who will travel to Bruges for the semi-finals in the summer.

The names of the semi-finalists will be announced on Monday, May 18, 2026 at 1 p.m.