The jury announced its verdict after midnight on Sunday.
First Prize – the Queen Mathilde Prize of EUR 25,000 – was awarded to Ettore Pagano from Italy.
He also received a four-year loan of the 1733 Matteo Gofriller "Casals" cello, courtesy of the Paul Casals Foundation.
South Korea's Tae-Yeon Kim won Second Prize worth EUR 20,000, while Third Prize of EUR 17,000 was awarded to Leland Ko from Canada.
Fourth Prize went to Álvaro Lozano Cames from Spain.
Japan's Yo Kitamura took Fifth Prize, while Maria Zaitseva from Russia was awarded Sixth Prize, founded by the City of Brussels.
The remaining unranked laureates are Lionel Martin (Germany), Ivan Sendetsky (Russia), Clara Dietlin (France), Dilshod Narzillaev (Uzbekistan) and Andrew Ilhoon Byun (Canada).
Each received EUR 4,000.
In the final round, each contestant played their chosen concerto alongside the competition's imposed work – Four Odes to the Tidings of Flowers by Chinese-American composer Fang Man – both accompanied by the Belgian National Orchestra, conducted by Anthony Hermus.
Michalski chose Dmitri Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto.
He told Polish Radio that having one week to master from scratch Fang Man's extremely difficult, 22-minute composition for orchestra and cello had been a great challenge.
The candidates had one week to learn the piece, working in isolation with no access to telephone or the internet.
Speaking to Polish Radio's correspondent in Brussels after his performance on Friday, but before the announcement of the final result, Michalski said he had been overwhelmed by the reaction of the audience.
"I was given a standing ovation, which is extremely rare at competitions. It was so nice to see that the people appreciated my effort," he said, adding that the competition had been extremely stressful but that it had been a great joy to perform at the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts.
"Belgium has a very special place in my heart," the Polish cellist said.
Sixty-four cellists took part in the first round of the competition.
Born in 2003 in Tarnobrzeg, south-eastern Poland, Michalski attended secondary school in Waterloo, near Brussels. He is currently studying for a master's degree at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris.
His achievements include second prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 2024, as well as awards at the Johansen International Competition for Young String Players in Washington and the Zoltán Kodály Competition in Debrecen, Hungary.
Michalski has performed as a soloist with symphony and chamber orchestras in Poland, Germany and Colombia, and has given recitals across Europe, Israel and the United States.
Founded 75 years ago, the Queen Elisabeth Competition is one of the world's most prestigious music contests.
The 2026 edition was dedicated to the cello for the third time.
(mk/ał)