We recently had the chance to connect with Hope Levy and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Hope, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: Would YOU hire you? Why or why not?
Yes! I would hire myself because I have a lot of joy and passion and I do know how to laugh at myself!!!
I am a very positive, hard worker and I look for the beauty in others around me! I really work to not get sucked into negativity which is a conscious effort as it does take more work to be positive than negative!
I admit when I am incorrect or jumped the gun and yes I still do forget to listen before I react which is my life long lesson and CHALLENGE I am continually working on!!!!
I am trying to make myself a better person and the world more joyful and help lift up others around me. We are in some unfriendly selfish times in our country as well as globally. I love to travel and I feel it is my purpose to spread kindness and exchange views with those want to connect and gain some understanding. Maybe I am an ambassador of kindness and love. I am not afraid to talk to anyone! Making eye contact and connecting with people is something I value in myself. I love to see if I can make someone smile or come out of their shell a little more. I believe in encouragement and kindness and yes love.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Hope Levy. I’m a singer-songwriter and voiceover artist—and for the past few years, I’ve been completely obsessed and joyfully wrapped up in the life and music of a real person named Connie Converse!
Connie was writing beautiful, poetic, and remarkably smart songs in the early 1950s in New York City—years before Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, or Joan Baez. She was doing something totally original before the term “singer-songwriter” even existed as a genre. But almost no one heard her music. Then, in 1974, at the age of 50, Connie wrote a series of goodbye letters to her loved ones, packed up her VW Bug, and disappeared. She was never seen again.
Years later, an old demo recording from 1954 resurfaced on a podcast, and in 2009 they were released on a CD that quietly went viral on Spotify—introducing her music to a whole new generation of listeners and fans!
I discovered Connie almost three years ago—at a time when I was feeling pretty creatively lost. I wasn’t writing much. I didn’t feel fulfilled as a songwriter. I didn’t know what I wanted to say, or where I was headed artistically. Then one day, I heard a Connie Converse song playing on Spotify, and it was like a switch flipped. That was my aha moment. Suddenly, I had a direction again. A reason to create. I had songs I wanted to explore and a story I felt called to tell. Connie gave me a sense of purpose, and for that I’ll always be grateful.
That purpose grew into The Connie Converse Universe—a one-woman acoustic show I’ve been performing around the country. It’s part concert, part storytelling, part tribute. In it, I share Connie’s music and the mystery of her life—but also pieces of my own. One of the most personal connections I’ve uncovered involves a song I recorded at the age of 7, written by my childhood voice teacher Marla Hunt. The lyrics told the story of a woman who packs up her life, walks out to her car, and disappears from the world. The song was recorded in August of 1974—the exact same month and year Connie vanished. It was part of a 45 rpm record called Hope and Her Friends. Was that song some kind of foreshadowing? Fate? Coincidence? I don’t know—but it’s one more reason I feel so deeply connected to Connie Converse.
As the show evolved, it also became something bigger than just a tribute. It became a reflection on what happens when we lose touch with our creative purpose—when we stop doing what we love, or don’t even know what that is. Connie’s story is filled with beauty and brilliance, but also with silence and invisibility. I believe her depression was, in part, a result of losing her connection to the music that once brought her joy. She stopped writing. She stopped performing. And in one of her final letters, she wrote that she felt like “an outer space alien”—like she didn’t belong in this world.
So, The Connie Converse Universe isn’t just about Connie. It’s about all of us. About what it means to follow your passion, to feel seen, and to keep going—even when the world doesn’t quite know what to do with you.
Now, I’ve recorded an album of Connie’s songs—Hope Levy Sings Connie Converse! —which was released on August 3rd, in honor of what is her 101st birthday!
This tribute album is now available on all digital and streaming platforms ie Spotify and the vinyl and cds are in record stores around Los Angeles including Freakbeat Records and Record Surplus and more! I’m also listed on Discogs.com and available digitally on my Hope Levy.Bandcamp.com site. More than anything, I’m excited for the chance to spread Connie’s music farther and wider, and to help introduce her timeless songs to new ears and hearts around the world.
I don’t know where Connie ended up. No one does. But through this project, wherever she may be I hope her music finally reaches the audience it always deserved. And maybe, just maybe, it helps the rest of us listen more closely to that quiet voice inside—and keep doing the things that make us feel most alive.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
When I was a kid, from the 1st to 3rd grades I went to this really free-spirited, open-classroom kind of school. It was all about creativity and self-expression. We learned by going on field trips and nature walks and exploring at your own pace, and celebrated our individualities! And I loved it—I totally thrived in that environment. I had my first experiences of singing and performing on stage there as well. I even got to record a 45-record called “Hope and Her Friends” with a song called “Smilin” written by my singing teacher named Marla Hunt. The interesting thing about that song I originally recorded in August of 1974 was that the lyrics were about a woman who packs up her life and drives away from her family forever to a place with “no cares or woes.” This to me was a very unique connection back to Connie Converse as she did just this and also in August of 1974! Who knew my 7 year old self would come back to this exact time period in a show I’d create almost 50 years later!!!
But when I was nine, I switched to a regular public school with a standardized school program which was kind of a shock to my system!
Suddenly, everything about me that had been encouraged before—my energy, my imagination, my singing—was “too much” and totally judged by my new peers. I was teased for being loud when I sang and laughed at when I asked questions and made fun of for just being more expressive. I remember coming home crying a lot. It was rough. I didn’t understand why being myself was suddenly something people picked on.
My mom tried to help. She’d say, “They’re just jealous, Hope.” And maybe they were, but at the time, it didn’t make me feel any better. I just didn’t want to be made fun of. I wanted to be “normal.”
But then something really important happened. I had this fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Fleming. And she got me. She didn’t just put up with the things that made me different—she actually encouraged them. She took time to understand me and also helped me catch up in all the more scholastic things I hadn’t learned in the open classroom. She made me feel like being creative and expressive wasn’t just okay—it was special and clever and wonderful! She told me that being a little different might actually be my superpower one day.
That meant everything to me.
Looking back, that year taught me a lot. I learned what it felt like to be singled out for being who you are—and what it feels like to be seen and supported. Mrs. Fleming, and honestly my mom too, helped me keep believing in myself when it would’ve been easy to shut down.
I think that’s a big part of why I connect so strongly to people like Connie Converse—these brilliant, original artists who didn’t quite fit in and still had something beautiful and real to say.
That little girl who was told she was too much? She’s still here. She just sings even louder now and yes has made a career of it!
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
STRUGGLING ACTRESS
When I was nine years old, I booked my first national TV commercial — I got to sing, act, and eat lots of M&M’s in the M&M’s “Candyman” commercial! After that, I started booking more commercials, and by the time I was eleven, I landed a spot on a syndicated Northern California kids’ variety show called Just Kidding. Around the same time, I was also recording children’s albums for various publications and even had the chance to work with the legendary folk singer-songwriter Malvina Reynolds, who wrote the song “Little Boxes.” I also got to sing on a Levi’s jingle — “Just for Girls” — alongside the artist behind the ’70s hit “Double Dutch Bus.”
I was incredibly grateful for all these unique opportunities, but a strange feeling started to creep in — guilt. I was so young and already doing the kind of work many people dreamed of, while others were still trying to get their foot in the door. I think part of it came from being sensitive to the world around me — I knew what it felt like to want to fit in. And there I was, living this very “unusual” childhood, far from what most kids experienced.
By the time I was 14, I had a very romantic idea of what it meant to be a real actor. I believed that struggling was part of the journey. In fact, I actually wanted to be a waitress — because I thought that was what all serious actors did before they made it. It felt like a rite of passage.
And so, I became a struggling actor for real. It took a long time before I started making consistent money. I took every kind of job imaginable to get by — waiting tables, working as a file clerk in law firms, doing product demos in stores, selling everything from makeup to air and water filters. I demonstrated vacuum cleaners and overhead projectors (remember those?), did phone sales, and even spent years working in a college HR department.
In between all that, I kept auditioning and booking what I could: gigs on a cruise ship as a singer-entertainer with Stars at Sea, and a six-month run in the Los Angeles premiere of Les Misérables at the old Shubert Theatre, where I was in the ensemble and understudied Eponine.
Eventually, I found my way into voiceover work — and that changed everything. It opened up steady acting opportunities and allowed me to finally make a living doing what I love. And because I had spent nearly a decade working those odd jobs and doing whatever it took to keep going, I truly felt I had earned it.
All of that struggle helped shape me — not just as an actor, but as a person. And every odd job along the way gave me the flexibility to say yes when auditions or theatre roles came up. It wasn’t always glamorous, but it built the foundation I needed to become the artist I am today.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
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“Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?”
For the past three years, I’ve been deeply committed to a project that’s become a true passion: telling the story of Connie Converse — one of the first modern-day female folk singer-songwriters, who was writing poetic, quirky, and deeply personal songs in the early 1950s. At a time when women, especially in the folk world, weren’t writing their own material — let alone material this emotionally honest and ahead of its time — Connie was creating something quietly revolutionary.
And then, at the age of 50, she disappeared. In August of 1974, she packed up her belongings, got into her VW Bug, and drove off. No one has seen her since. Her music, her mystery, and her life story drew me in completely. I’ve become obsessed — not just with her songs, but with the emotional landscape behind them.
That passion led me to create The Connie Converse Universe — a live performance piece that I’ve been workshopping, performing, and touring with for the past few years. I book the show entirely myself — I make the calls, I send the emails, I follow up with venues. Every single booking has come from me putting in the legwork. And one of my biggest goals now is to find a booking agent who believes in the show and can help me bring it to audiences all over the United States and eventually around the world.
In the show, I sing Connie’s songs live — playing them on guitar — while weaving in her life story and my own personal connection to her. I feel an emotional and artistic kinship with Connie. I understand her. I relate to her longing, her creativity, her quiet struggle. I also perform some of my own original folk songs, as well as covers of other folk artists, to create a rich, emotional journey through music, story, and soul.
At the heart of this project is a belief that I carry deeply: when we stop doing the thing we love — the thing that fulfills us — we lose something essential. Connie stopped writing and performing in her mid-30s, and I believe that disconnect from her creative self played a role in her depression and eventual disappearance. That message lives in the show: Don’t give up on your creative voice. And if what you love evolves, follow it. Keep searching, keep creating, keep discovering, keep DOING what fills your soul.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
Honestly nothing! I am living the life I want to lead! I perform and get to travel and I am in a place in my creative life that honestly is fulfilling me. I also try to connect each day with someone I either know or maybe meet in line at a store. We all need to connect more and that is something I will always do no matter how much time I have left! I look forward to bringing my Connie Converse Universe as well as my own original songs to a live venue near you! Thanks for reading! xoHope
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Contact Info:
- Website: http://hopelevy.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connieconverseuniverse/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hope-levy-86949710/
- Twitter: https://x.com/Hopelevysings
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Hope.Levy20/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@HopeLevyFan/videos
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/hopelevy
- Other: https://hopelevy.bandcamp.com/
https://linktr.ee/hopelevy
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vXFrfA0fvKCyxxkojaMUq
Image Credits
Sloane Morrison
Todd Everett
Tod Mcofsky
Tom Lavagnino
John Goss
