The Butter Quartet consists of four musicians brought together by their mutual love of vibrant historically-informed performance of string quartets. They first formed during their studies at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, but soon developed a passion and dynamic that extended beyond their conservatory years. The Butters enjoy integrating their research on late 18th- and early 19th-century performance practice into powerful performances. They also bring the same spirit of discovery to newly-composed works for historically-setup instruments.

Recent and upcoming engagements include performances at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (MA), Helicon Foundation (NYC), Academy of Early Music (MI), Early Music Seattle, Valley Concert Society (BC), and Nelson Overture Concerts Society (BC). The 2026-27 season sees debuts with Chamber Music Corvallis (OR), Arizona Early Music, Fullerton Friends of Music (CA), and the Da Camera Society in Los Angeles.

The Butters have been featured in festivals such as the String Quartet Biënnale Amsterdam (2024), the York Early Music Festival (2023), the Utrecht Early Music Festival (2022), Mozartfest Würzburg (2021) and the Beethoven Academy at the National Forum for Music in Poland (2020). Their performances have also been broadcast on national classical radio in the Netherlands (NPO4), the UK (BBC3), France (France Musique) and Slovenia (RTV Slovenija). At the 2019 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition, they were awarded a place in the prestigious EEEMERGING+ professional development scheme for young European ensembles. The quartet made their recording debut in 2024 with Scintilla on Brilliant Classics, followed in May 2026 by Wait Till the Clouds Roll By, an evocative collection pairing works by Franz Joseph Haydn and Caroline Shaw.

UPDATED APRIL 2026. PLEASE DESTROY ALL PREVIOUS VERSIONS.