“Clarissa’s playing is absolutely sublime. The depth of her musicality allied to her world-class technical skill result in performances that dazzle and inspire! I was completely energized by Clarissa and her playing.”
Augusta Read Thomas, composer
“Clarissa is not only a wonderful violinist, but also a wonderful person. We received application from around the world and the quality was extraordinarily high, but her exceptional talent stuck out above the rest.”
Jung-Ho Pak, Conductor of the Cape Symphony
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. Since then, she has performed solo recitals and concerto engagements at venues throughout North America and Europe. Recent and upcoming soloist performances include the BBC NOW, Cape Symphony, Orchestra della Toscana, Orchestra Filarmonica di Benevento, Orchestra UniMi, Orchestra Cremona Classica, Orchestra Ars Armonica, Orchestra Cupiditas, El Sistema Orchestra, and the Salzburger Orchester Solisten. Winner of several international competitions, she was recently awarded First Prize, Audience Award and Special Bärenreiter Award at the 2020 International Mozart Competition Salzburg. She was also awarded the Grand Prize at the 2020 Cape Symphony International Violin Competition. She is a Young Artist of the Si-Yo Music Society Foundation 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 in Salzburg, where she studied with Pierre Amoyal. Clarissa’s upcoming projects include the release of the complete works for solo violin by Augusta Read Thomas on the Nimbus label. Clarissa is passionate about historic violins. At age fourteen, she was selected as the youngest violinist to perform regularly with the precious Stradivari collection of the Violin Museum at the Auditorium Giovanni Arvedi in Cremona. She now performs on a violin by Zosimo Bergonzi, Cremona c.1748, courtesy of Guarneri Hall NFP and Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins, Chicago.