Butter Quartet (NL)

The Butter Quartet consists of four musicians brought together by their mutual love of vibrant historically informed performances of string quartets. They first formed at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and soon developed a passion and dynamic that extended beyond their studies. They have been featured in festivals and series internationally, as well as on BBC Radio 3 and the Dutch station NPO Radio 4. After competing as finalists in the 2019 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition, they were awarded the prestigious EEEMERGING+ prize. The Butter Quartet enjoys integrating their research on late 18th- and early 19th-century performance practice into powerful live performances. They value a strong connection with their audiences, playing in diverse spaces and speaking during concerts. The Butter Quartet has received numerous grants and scholarships, and they are a beneficiary of the EEEMERGING+ project supported by Creative Europe.
https://www.butterquartet.com/

Anna Jane Lester is a violinist. She performs with internationally acclaimed period instrument ensembles such as Holland Baroque, the Internationale Händel Festspiele Göttingen Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and PRJCT Amsterdam. She has also played concerts with groups including L’Arpeggiata, Luthers Bach Ensemble, Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, Musica Gloria, and Le Concert d’Apollon. She began her violin studies at age four in Jacksonville, Florida. After earning her bachelor’s degree in violin performance at Vanderbilt University, she attended The Juilliard School for a Master of Music in Historical Performance, studying with Monica Huggett and Cynthia Roberts. She has since moved to the Netherlands, completing her studies with Walter Reiter and Kati Debretzeni. She plays an 18th-century Odoardi violin on generous loan from the Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds. In her free time, Anna Jane enjoys exploring American old-time music and spending time in wild places.

Chloe Prendergast is a violinist currently based in the Netherlands. She is a member of Holland Baroque and co-creator of the podcast Outside the MusicBox as well as its associated concert series. Chloe has performed across North America and Europe with groups including the Handel and Haydn Society, Seattle’s Pacific Musicworks, Vox Luminis, the Henry Purcell Society of Boston, the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, Luthers Bach Ensemble, the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Collegium Ad Mosam, Le Concert d’Apollon, and the Arcadia Players. She has also appeared at music festivals internationally, including the Connecticut Early Music Festival, the Utrecht Early Music Festival, the Beethoven Academy in Wrocław, Wonderfeel, and Aigues-Vives en Musique. Chloe completed her master’s degree at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague with Kati Debretzeni and Walter Reiter and her bachelor’s degree at Willamette University, where she studied principally with Anthea Kreston and Daniel Rouslin.

Isabel Franenberg is a freelance violist and viola teacher from the Netherlands. Isabel plays as a trio with violone players Margaret Urquhart and Robert Franenberg with whom she recorded a CD in 2019. She is principal violist of the Laurenscantorij en Orkest and has been invited to play with ensembles such as the Nederlandse Bachvereniging, Holland Baroque, and Ribatutta Musica. Isabel studied historical viola at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Shunske Sato and Sayuri Yamagata and at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with Kati Debrezeni. She played in the 2016/2017 season of the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO). Before studying viola, Isabel completed a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Musicology at the University of Utrecht. She worked for orchestras such as the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Holland Baroque. Isabel loves combining her background in academic research, music management and playing the viola in a historically informed manner.

Evan Buttar enjoys a varied and international performing career on both the baroque cello and viola da gamba. He plays with groups such as the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, the Luthers Bach Ensemble, and Musica Gloria. His chamber and orchestral experiences have brought him to stages in numerous festivals internationally. Evan started playing music at a young age in Vancouver, Canada. After completing a bachelor’s on cello at the University of Ottawa in 2014, his fascination with historically informed performance inspired his move to the Netherlands, where he currently resides. There he obtained a baroque cello master’s degree with Jaap ter Linden at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague in 2016, and that same year started a second master’s study there on the viola da gamba with Mieneke van der Velden and Philippe Pierlot, which he completed in 2018. Evan plays a baroque cello by Jakob Weiss (ca. 1745) generously on loan from the collection of the Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds.