Echonance – Concert #4: Clara Levy

Clara Levy – 13 visions For Solo Violin

Clara Lévy (FR/BE) is a violinist, improviser, PhD candidate, and humbly self-described “sound crafter” based in Brussels, devoted to contemporary and experimental music. She has collaborated with numerous composers and artists, including Kaija Saariaho, Howard Moody, Pascale Jakubowski, Karim Haddad, and Vera Tussing. Notably, Clara is part of one of Echonance’s close partners, ONCEIM, so this is not her first time at the festival…and certainly not her last.

During Echonance 2026, she will perform 13 Visions for the first time in the Netherlands. This solo for violin draws on Pauline Oliveros’ Thirteen Changes and the chants of Hildegard von Bingen. As Clara described it, the piece “[was] born from the desire to bring together music that particularly touches me (medieval monody and minimalist music), through the works of two composers who have had a great impact on my musical trajectory.” Through 13 Visions, Clara has dared to delineate a lineage where multifaceted, visionary voices and brilliances take center stage.

Using the structure of Oliveros’ text score Thirteen Changes, Lévy recasts the composer’s poetic instructions into specific sonic parameters. Each movement is paired with one of Hildegard’s chant, whose pitch material informs Lévy’s own writing. She describes the chants as “negatives,” with the violin acting as a drone to provide a sober harmonization of the melodies. While pitch and timbre are pre-determined, most other musical decisions, including duration and dynamics, are left to Clara when performing. The result is breathtaking in its austere beauty, unfolding subdued melodic lines with patience and delicate articulation, exploring microtonal intervals through pulsing single-bow strokes, occasionally enriched by Clara’s voice.