Sara Salvérius

accordionist and composer

Meet an artist that shuns all trends and goes straight for the heart.

(G. Peters)

Projects

STORIES WITHOUT WORDS
Accordion & clarinet

In the spring of 2024, Sara Salvérius paid a visit to Clos Bizet, and assisted-living centre in Anderlecht (Brussels). She had been requested by Klara Festival to spend a week in residence there. There she met the residents, listened to their stories and began composing new work. This is how Stories without words came about: a series of intimate compositions for accordion and clarinet in which the lives shine through of those of a generation who are seldom heard nowadays.

Accompanied by clarinettist Jean-Philippe Poncin, Sara has toured with Stories without words and played at venues large and small range from concert halls to living rooms and assisted-care centres. In between the tunes she relates the life stories of those who confided in her: a poet who is losing his words, a couple with an impressive collection of cuddly toys, a man who after a stroke can hardly move. Just how moving their stories are, can be heard in the music: fragile and melancholic at times but also passionate and full of a zest for life in which the characteristic timbre of the clarinet blends effortlessly with melancholic tonal palette of the accordion. Sara’s intense compositions and Jean-Philippe Poncin’s sensitive improvisations do rightful justice to the richly layered lives of the residents of Clos Bizet.

With this album, Sara Salvérius & Jean-Philippe Poncin won the audience award at the Belgian Worldwide Music Awards in 2026.

Sara Salvérius (accordion & composition)

Jean-Philippe Poncin (clarinet/bass clarinet)

BREATH
Accordion & wind quartet

Expected in 2027

In 2025 Sara Salvérius’s grandfather announced the very day and hour of his own death. He had applied for euthanasia and knew exactly when he would draw his final breath. For Sara, this foreshadowing of an imminent farewell was not only the beginning of a personal period of mourning, but also the beginning of a quest for the cadence that gives rhythm to every single life. Driven by the ambition to compose once again for a larger ensemble, this year she plans to bring together four musicians from various backgrounds: saxophonist Bertel Schollaert, clarinettist Jean-Philippe Poncin, trombonist Frederik Heirman and trumpetist Sam Vloemans. Together they plan to explore the wind that rushes through their instruments – at times with the melancholic tone of a whispered last word or with the exuberant flourish of a brass band. They celebrate life, leave-taking and death both through composition and improvisation – for everything is breath. Expected in 2027.

Sara Salvérius (accordion & composition)

Jean-Philippe Poncin (clarinet/bass clarinet)

Sam Vloemans (trumpet)

Frederik Heirman (trombone)

Bertel Schollaert (saxophones)

Vlaanderen verbeelding werkt_vol_zwart.png

PENDULUM
Accordion & string quartet

Pendulum is a musical journey exploring the movement between extremes, and the calm that lies in between. A unique world of sound emerges and is shaped together with the string quartet SunSunSun: all the quartet’s instruments were carved from the same wood by violin maker Pieter Goossens, creating a warm and intimate resonance. The music sways gently from joy to sorrow, light to darkness, inwards and outwards. And a soft space of connection is created exactly where the pendulum pauses, a place where opposites touch and briefly merge.

Sara Salvérius (accordion & composition)

Jeroen Baert & Yumika Lecluyze (violin)
Karel Coninx (viola)
Seraphine Stragier (cello)

Agenda

Info and reservations

Biography

An accordionist, composer and storyteller: Ghent-born Sara Salvérius has made versatility and expressivity her musical trademarks. Working at the cutting edge of composition and improvisation, she creates heartfelt stories with a universal expressive power. Her work is deeply rooted in her own personal experience and is as striking in more intimate settings as in a concert hall. She is in constant search of collaboration that reaches beyond the confines of genres and disciplines. In doing so she brings together the cream of Belgian classical, jazz and improvised music scenes.

Sara developed her sensitive virtuosity during her studies of classical accordion with Philippe Thuriot at the Conservatory in Ghent. Since the loss of her sister, who sadly took her own life, she has focused on writing her own compositions. Initially she did so alone, her debut album being Trapped In Sight (2018) followed by Equinox (2020), after which she had continued to work with various musical formations. Her album Pendulum (2023) was composed especially for the Sun*Sun*Sun string quartet who played on instruments all made from the same piece of wood by Pieter Goossens. In Stories without words (2024) she formed a duo with clarinettist Jean-Philippe Poncin to tell musical stories of the lives of people living in an assisted-living centre. Her grandfather’s euthanasia formed the point of departure for a new project in the making called Breath (expected to be completed in 2027), in which she will work together with four brass instrumentalists from various backgrounds. Next to all this Sara has also been involved in the theatre. A number of her composition can be heard in the productions of various playwrights, such as Valentijn Dhaenens and Giovanni Brand, among others.

Sara Salvérius is a welcome guest on stage both at home and abroad, and is well appreciated by the public and critics alike. Klara praised her debut album, calling it one of the most striking releases of that year. Since then Sara’s work has been awarded numerous prizes, including among others the Flanders Folk Award for the Best Album of 2022 and the Flanders Folk Award for Best Live Band in 2025.

With their album Stories without words, Sara Salvérius & Jean-Philippe Poncin won the audience award at the Belgian Worldwide Music Awards in 2026.