Evan Buttar

I began taking music lessons at 4 years old, starting with a cello made from a shoe box and a metre stick to learn how to bow and sing, and getting a real one when I was 5. It wasn't an immediate passion for me - my parents encouraged me to keep playing and practiced with me, and it was only around the age of 13 that I really started to fall for the instrument. I started to play pieces that famous cellists performed, got into a good youth orchestra, and started discovering classical music from a fresh perspective.

By the end of high school, I was completely committed to the instrument and classical music. When I was 17, a friend let me borrow a CD of Jordi Savall playing solo viola da gamba, and amidst my musical discoveries, that one stuck with me. As I began my Bachelor studies at the University of Ottawa with Paul Marleyn in 2010, I searched for a viola da gamba and teacher, and to my luck, found one! A year later I attended the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, and I was hooked. Baroque cello started taking over my time and repertoire, and by my third year of my Bachelor, I was set on pursuing historically informed performance practice.

After a long summer attending many early music festivals in North America in 2013, I met Jaap ter Linden in Vancouver, and knew he was the teacher for me. I moved to The Hague in 2014 to pursue a Masters in Baroque Cello at the Koninklijk Conservatorium with him, and completed that degree in June 2016. For those two years I was generously loaned an instrument from a former teacher in Canada, but I had to return it after my degree was finished, at which point I turned to the NMF. 

They were open and kind to me, and after an interview, I was given an instrument to borrow. I tried out three different cellos, and as soon as I played this one, I knew it was the one for me. I found it challenging to play at first, but the colours of sound, projection, and general tonal possibilities were inspiring to me. The high register sings and soars, and the low register is clear and deep. Especially as a practitioner of historically informed performance practice, playing on an instrument that comes from the same time as the music I perform is extremely interesting and valuable. I quickly fell in love with it, and am continuously learning so much from it. I have travelled and performed all over Europe with the instrument, including in Austria, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy, and Poland. It is very versatile, and I regularly perform music ranging from the Baroque to the Romantic periods on it. I can feel and hear the history of the cello, and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to play it for the coming years.

I have also been fortunate enough to borrow two fantastic bows from the NMF, a baroque and a classical bow. Both bows are a bit different and lighter than what I was used to before, but after adapting to them, I found them to be extremely versatile and flexible, allowing me to create the nuances I seek with ease. They have also been my guides in discovering music from these times, as the bow informs so much about articulations, dynamics, and other subtleties.

From 2016 to 2018 I pursued a Masters in Viola da Gamba in The Hague with Mieneke van der Velden and Philippe Pierlot, and since completing those studies I have been working as a freelancer on both instruments, performing throughout the Netherlands and Europe with various ensembles including the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, the Butter Quartet (a period string quartet that is now part of the eeemerging+ program), Luthers Bach Ensemble, and Musica Gloria, among many others.