Clarissa Bevilacqua is the winner of the International Mozart Competition Salzburg -
First Prize, Audience Award and Special Award
for the best interpretation of a piece by Mozart.
She was also awarded the Grand Prize at the Cape Symphony International
Violin Competition.
It is a joy to follow the rapid and impressive evolution of Clarissa’s playing.
Her playing presents a rare and balanced combination, making music with a fresh and spontaneous approach, generously projected by a brilliant and elegant violin technique.
She studies very seriously the content of the music she performs, with deep knowledge of all different styles, which is quite exceptional for musicians of her generation.
No doubt in my mind that she possesses already a great potential for a successful career and that the world of music will welcome her with enthusiasm for many years to come.
Pierre Amoyal
“We were fortunate to attend a concert played on that violin by a prodigy, Clarissa Bevilacqua.... It is an electrifying experience to hear the precision and richness of the sound of the ‘Vesuvius’ coming from the hands of such a young performer. The old and the young intersected in one magic moment.”
The Washington Post
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.
Clarissa released her debut album “Dream Catcher” by Nimbus Records, featuring Augusta Read Thomas complete works for solo violin, and Violin Concerto #3: "Juggler in Paradise" with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales directed by conductor Vimbayi Kaziboni.
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 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.