Winner of our Ambassador Programme Open Application

"Clarissa has all the qualities necessary to make her mark on the music industry today. She is an incredibly well trained artist with a beautifully distinctive sound, who knows how to present herself in today’s ever changing musical landscape. We believe Clarissa has the right tools to reach international audiences and we are very much looking forward to working with her on the Classeek Ambassador Programme." 

Violinist Clarissa Bevilacqua is known to enchant audiences with her dazzling technical skills and deeply inspiring musicality. Music director and conductor Terry Lowry says she has that “rare star quality that is difficult to describe, but impossible to miss.” 

Clarissa debuted at the Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago in front of ten thousand people when she was nine years old. She has performed solo recitals and concerto engagements at venues throughout North America and Europe. Recent and upcoming soloist performances include the opening concert of the Mozartwoche 2023 with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the premier recording of the Augusta Read Thomas concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Cape Symphony, Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, Orchestra della Toscana, Orchestra Filarmonica di Benevento, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, El Sistema Orchestra and the Salzburger Orchester Solisten. 

Winner of several international competitions, she was awarded First Prize, Audience Award and Special Bärenreiter Award at the International Mozart Competition Salzburg. She was also awarded the Grand Prize at the Cape Symphony International Violin Concerto Competition. She is a Young Artist of the Classically Connected Organization in New York, and an Affiliate Artist of the Guarneri Hall Program in Chicago. An avid and enthusiastic learner, Clarissa received her Bachelor of Music at age sixteen, graduating summa cum laude. In 2021, she completed her Master of Music in Violin Performance at the Mozarteum University Salzburg with Pierre Amoyal. She is currently studying with Antje Weithaas at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin.

Violin

Clarissa Bevilacqua

Clarissa Bevilacqua, violin (Italy-USA) / Open Application

Solitude is a philosophical musing that many have pondered on. For violinist Clarissa Bevilacqua, it has marked her career. At nine years old, alone before a crowd of 10,000, she enchanted the audience with her inspired musicality. At seventeen, presenting in front of the Concours Musical International de Montréal jury, Bevilacqua was the only candidate who chose to play solo - without accompaniment - during the first round. And last year, Bevilacqua released her debut album, Dream Catcher, featuring Augusta Read Thomas’ complete works for solo violin. 

The individual voice of a violin and violinist is explored in this programme that spans three centuries. Meticulously chosen by Bevilacqua, each piece demonstrates the development of violin expression throughout various musical periods, the common theme being each composer’s distinctive contribution to the solo violin repertoire. 

Dream Catcher opens the concert in an ethereal, foggy daze. As this bewitching story unfurls, we may be left wanting to remain in an abstract haze. This is exactly when the second work, Sidestep Reel, composed by Wynton Marsalis, steps in. We are thrust into a contemporary work that slides into the world of folk and jazz with its Afro-Celtic dance style.

These modern opening acts are then tempered by the tradition of Viennese art music. Paul Hindemith and Fritz Kreisler’s characteristic flavours and idiomatic writing are showcased with virtuosic flair, proving that a similar ‘nurture’ can create extremely distinct but equally compelling styles. 

The last set of compositions juxtapose past and present. Bach’s Violin Partita No.3 is one of six for solo violin and, almost exactly two hundred years later, inspired Ysaÿe’s own. Beginning with the same initial notes as Bach’s Partita No.3, Ysaÿe’s Sonata No.2 pays homage, before meandering into a unique composition that fluctuates between incredibly technical passages and deep, sensitive, song-like melodies.

It was J.S. Bach who wrote “Sei Solo” on the manuscript of his Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. It is widely accepted that instead of writing “You are alone”, he meant to write Sei Soli, meaning “Six Solos”. But perhaps not. Bach may also have been taken by the exploration of solitude for the instrument and instrumentalist. With her violin and the musings of six great composers, Clarissa Bevilacqua adds her own exceptional interpretation.  

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Clarissa Bevilacqua

Violin Recital

25.01.24

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