Sara Salvérius & blazerskwartet: Adem

Accordionist, composer and storyteller: Ghent-based Sara Salvérius has made versatility and expressiveness her trademark. At the crossroads of composition and improvisation, she creates deeply felt instrumental stories with a universal power. Her work is rooted in personal experience and comes into its own in intimate settings just as much as on big stages. Unbound by genre or discipline, she eagerly seeks out collaborations, bringing together the cream of the Belgian classical, jazz and improv scenes for her projects.

Sara developed her virtuosic and sensitive playing while studying classical accordion with Philippe Thuriot at the Ghent Conservatory. Since losing her sister to suicide, she has focused on her own compositions. At first she did so solo, with her debut album Trapped In Sight (2018) and its follow-up Equinox (2020), and then increasingly in changing line-ups. With Pendulum (2023) she brought together the string ensemble SunSunSun around instruments that Pieter Goossens built from a single piece of wood, and with Verhalen zonder woorden (2024), in a duo with clarinettist Jean-Philippe Poncin, she set to music fragments from the lives of people in a care home. Her grandfather’s euthanasia prompted her new project Adem (expected 2027), which unites four wind players from different backgrounds.

Sara Salvérius is a welcome guest on stages in Belgium and abroad. Klara hailed her debut album as one of the most striking releases of the year. Since then her work has won numerous awards, including the Flanders Folk Award for Best Album in 2022 and for Best Live Band in 2025. With Verhalen zonder woorden, Sara Salvérius & Jean-Philippe Poncin won the audience award at the Belgian Worldwide Music Awards in 2026.