ABOUT
“The intention of music is not only to please the ear, but to express sentiments, strike the imagination, affect the mind, and command the passions” (Francesco Geminiani, The Art of Playing on the Violin)
Fueled by a dedication to community building through music, Serbian-American violinist Ela Kodžas enjoys a dynamic career as a soloist and collaborator, having performed across the United States, Europe and Asia. She has performed with Masaaki Suzuki, Rachel Podger, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Jakob Lehmann, Paul Agnew, and William Christie, and has been featured as a soloist with Juilliard415 in Alice Tully Hall and on tour in China. In 2024, she won the Juilliard Historical Performance Concerto Competition and this past fall, became a prizewinner at the Premio Bonporti (2025).
Recent and upcoming features include performances with Theotokos and the New Consort, Vox Luminis, Nuova Pratica, Les Arts Florissants, Publick Musick, Clarion Music Society, American Bach Soloists, and the Smithsonian Academy Orchestra. She was selected as a Mercury-Juilliard Fellow (’25-’26, TX) and as an inaugural Academist of the Insula Camerata (’25-’27, FR).
As a founding member of period ensemble, Quartet Novalis, Ela has performed at the International Van Wassenaer Competition (NL), Utrecht and Boston Early Music Festival Fringe Series, and the Baroque and Classical Academy at the Carmel Bach Festival. The ensemble seeks new perspectives on familiar repertory through exploration of historically accurate tools and academic research. They were recently selected as the Pegasus Rising Artists (’25-’26) and will perform concerts throughout upstate New York and New Hampshire at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music.
A native of Rochester, NY, Ela holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, UCLA and the Juilliard School, and is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda. Her mentors include Renée Jolles, Robert Mealy, Movses Pogossian, Varty Manouelian and Elizabeth Blumenstock. She continues her studies with Rachel Podger at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she is the recipient of the Christopher Hogwood Award.
In her free time, she can be found avidly dog watching (though she’s developing a fondness for cats too) or searching for hidden treasures at flea markets.
