Quartet Novalis

A Note from the Baroque & Classical Academy Director, Edwin Huizinga
From Academy Fellows to Rising Stars: Welcome Back, Quartet Novalis!

It is an enormous pleasure—and a little thrilling—to welcome back four extraordinary young musicians who were part of the Carmel Bach Festival Baroque & Classical Academy in 2024: Ela Kodžas, Annemarie Schubert, Eliana Estrada, and Luka Stefanović.

Two years ago, they arrived in Carmel as four exceptionally gifted young artists. What happened next was something very special: they formed Quartet Novalis, an ensemble devoted to bringing the sound, rhetoric, and spirit of the 18th- and 19th-century string quartet repertoire vividly to life. Since their time at the Academy, they have gone on to perform throughout New York, at the Boston Early Music Festival and Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, compete internationally, and establish themselves as one of the most exciting young ensembles in the historical-performance world.

And their individual accomplishments are extraordinary. Ela Kodžas, an Early Music America Summer Scholar and Pi Kappa Lambda Scholar, has performed with American Bach Soloists and the Smithsonian Haydn Academy and is continuing her studies with the great baroque violinist Rachel Podger. Annemarie Schubert, a recipient of Juilliard’s prestigious Norman Benzaquen Award, is performing internationally as a concertmaster and soloist and is a current Mercury-Juilliard Fellow. Eliana Estrada, winner of the San Francisco Conservatory’s Baroque Concerto Competition in both 2023 and 2024, has performed in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center and Walt Disney Concert Hall and is a Handel and Haydn Society Stone Fellow. And Luka Stefanović, an accomplished cellist and gambist, has joined his colleagues in building Quartet Novalis into an ensemble now performing on major early-music stages in the United States and Europe. 

For me, this return is especially meaningful. I have had the extraordinary privilege of directing the Baroque & Classical Academy for the past five years, and working with these young musicians—and watching them grow—is one of the great joys of the program. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing artists you first encountered as emerging musicians develop their own voices, take flight, and begin making their mark in the wider musical world.

And now they are coming home to Carmel.

I could not be more excited to hear them again, to see what they have become, and to welcome these remarkable Academy alumni back to the Festival that helped bring them together in the first place.

Welcome home, Ela, Annemarie, Eliana, and Luka. Carmel has been waiting for you!