The Butter Quartet consists of four musicians brought together by their mutual love of vibrant historically-informed performance of string quartets. They have been featured in international festivals in Europe, and their performances have been broadcast on national classical radio in the Netherlands, France, Slovenia, and the UK.
The ensemble has performed at The String Quartet Biënnale Amsterdam, the York Early Music Festival, the Utrecht Early Music Festival, Mozartfest Würzburg, and the Beethoven Academy at the National Forum for Music in Poland. Their performances have been broadcast on national classical radio in the Netherlands, France, Slovenia, and the UK.
The Butter Quartet enjoys integrating their research on late 18th- and early 19th-century performance practice into engaging performances. They also bring the same spirit of discovery to newly-composed works for historically-setup instruments.
After five years of performing together internationally, the quartet has released their debut album, Scintilla, based around early Italian string quartets. While researching first editions and manuscripts, they found many 18th-century quartets that have never been recorded, but which are incredibly dynamic, powerful, and joyful.
The concert at St James' is titled Well Met By Moonlight, and the programme includes
| Mendelssohn | Overture from A Midsummer Night's Dream | |
| Schubert | String Quartet in G major, D. 887 | |
| Haydn | String Quartet Op. 50 No. 5, "The Dream" | |
| Mendelssohn | Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream | |
| Mendelssohn | String Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 13 |
By moonlight’s haze, colourful characters come alive, mistaken identities abound and scampering fairy feet are encapsulated within this evocatively poignant collection of instrumental works.
St James' Music Series is pleased to present this outstanding Dutch string ensemble in their first tour of Canada and the US.
Anna Jane Lester is a violinist & illustrator. She has performed with internationally-acclaimed period instrument ensembles such as Holland Baroque (member since 2018), the English Baroque Soloists, the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles, Le Consort, Irish Baroque Orchestra, the Internationale Händel Festspiele Göttingen Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Gabrieli Players, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, The English Concert, PRJCT Amsterdam, L’Arpeggiata, Vox Luminis, and the Luthers Bach Ensemble. Her chamber performances have brought her to stages from the Concertgebouw Amsterdam to the Smithsonian Institute to the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht.
Anna Jane began her violin studies at age four in Jacksonville, Florida, studying with Melissa Pierson Barrett before attending Vanderbilt University as a Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholar and earning her bachelor’s degree in violin performance with Cornelia Heard. She then 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. In her free time, Anna Jane enjoys exploring American old time music and spending time in wild places.
Chloe Prendergast is a violinist based in the Netherlands. She is a core member of Holland Baroque, as well as a founding member of the Butter Quartet, a period-instrument string quartet dedicated to the world of 18th- and early 19th-century performance practice. She is co-creator of the podcast Outside the MusicBox as well as its associated concert series, both of which break down barriers surrounding conventional classical music concerts in order to reach new classical music-lovers.
Chloe has performed across North America, the UK, and Europe with groups including English Baroque Soloists, Le Consort, Ensemble Masques, the Handel and Haydn Society, Vox Luminis, Seattle’s Pacific Musicworks, the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, and Luthers Bach Ensemble. She has also appeared at music festivals internationally, including the Utrecht Early Music Festival, String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam, Wonderfeel, Leipzig Bachfest, the Connecticut Early Music Festival, and the Beethoven Academy at the National Forum for Music in Poland.
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 was a Phil Hanni scholar and studied principally with Anthea Kreston and Daniel Rouslin.
Isabel Franenberg is a freelance violist from the Netherlands. She is a founding member of the Butter Quartet, and regularly plays with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging, Luthers Bach Ensemble and the Laurens Cantorij en Orkest. She has been invited to play with ensembles such as il Gardellino, Tulipa Consort, The Northern Consort, Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester, and Holland Baroque.
Isabel studied historical viola at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Sayuri Yamagata and Shunske Sato and at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with Kati Debretzeni. Alongside her conservatory studies, she played in the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO) where she toured Europe extensively under Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Margaret Faultless and Alfredo Bernardini. She participated in masterclasses with Clive Brown, Sigiswald Kuijken, Jane Rogers, Robert Levin and Laurence Dreyfus.
Before studying viola, Isabel completed a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Musicology at the University of Utrecht with a minor in Art History. She worked as producer, manager, librarian and fundraiser for orchestras such as the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Holland Baroque and the Nederlands Studenten Orkest.
Evan Buttar enjoys a varied and international performing career on both the baroque cello and viola da gamba. He has performed with groups such as the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Le Concert des Nations, Ensemble Zefiro, PRJCT Amsterdam, and Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, and regularly plays with various ensembles including the Luthers Bach Ensemble, Musica Gloria, Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester, and the Butter Quartet, a historically-informed string quartet of which he is a founding member. His chamber and orchestral experiences have brought him to international stages in numerous festivals, including the Utrecht Early Music Festival, the MA Festival Brugge, Mozartfest Würzburg, Festival Berlioz,
Chopin and his Europe Festival, the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, the Beethoven Academy in Wrocław, and the String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam.
Evan started playing music at a young age in Vancouver, Canada. After completing a bachelor’s degree in modern cello at the University of Ottawa in 2014, his fascination with historically informed performance practice 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 Dutch Musical Instruments Foundation.