Looking Glass: Novalis String Quartet

Founded in 2024 as the Academy Quartet at the Carmel Bach Festival, Quartet Novalis is a period-performance ensemble based in New York City. Made up of Eliana Estrada, Ela Kodžas, Annemarie Schubert, and Luka Stefanović, the group seeks to bring a fresh perspective to 18th and 19th century string quartet repertoire by uncovering old concepts of sound, rhetoric, and musical understanding while also reshaping audience expectations of the string quartet. The name Novalis comes from the 18th-century German polymath and philosopher whose beliefs centered around dissolving the barriers between language and the surrounding world: language, as music, is a living organism that not only serves as a means of communication but also as a creative and magical force with potential to transcend borders and our reality. Most recently, Novalis was selected for the Pegasus Rising Artists Series (Rochester, NY), the Arizona Early Music Emerging Ensemble Residency (Tucson, AZ), and was named an Emerging Artist by Early Music America. Upcoming performances include a residence at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, Early Music America Summit, and a return concert in Carmel, California.