Bio
New Jersey-based cellist Amy Ward Butler has a decidedly new twist on a very old instrument. With her vision for rich, multi-layered cello ensemble arrangements and original compositions, Amy hopes to bring her love of these dramatic sounds to a larger and larger audience and to provide cello choirs with accessible material that capitalize on the full vocal range of the instrument.
Her interest in vocal music stems from early experiences with opera orchestras; the very first was Verdi’s “Falstaff” with a small New Jersey company when she was still in high school. (We will spare you the year.) As a student at the Eastman School of Music, she participated in a summer festival, the Heidelberg Schloss-Spiele, which featured opera performances in the courtyard of the castle. Another concert during that summer in Germany was a performance of Haydn’s “Creation” at the monastery where “The Name of the Rose” was filmed. Very picturesque!
Amy wrested two degrees from Eastman, studying with Steven Doane and Paul Katz. While a grad student, she was Mr. Doane’s teaching assistant and the cellist with The Olivier Trio, Eastman’s first piano trio-in-residence, which performed in Rochester and New York City, and competed in the Fischoff Competition. (They didn’t win, but they did get their picture in the South Bend paper.) She spent four summers at Tanglewood where she had the opportunity to play for Joel Krosnick of the Juilliard Quartet (Joel has retired in the meantime) and Yo-yo Ma in a variety of master classes, including a rare chance to perform “Schelomo” with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. Conductors she performed under included Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa and Leonard Bernstein.
Her professional road led down years of free-lance work throughout the Mid-Atlantic. It started with the predictable struggling-artist jobs in retail and waitressing, proving that just because you love the food doesn’t mean you’ll be any good at serving it to other people. Eventually, she was able to break into the worlds of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Baltimore Opera Company (no link, because the company has closed), Harrisburg Symphony, Sundays at Three, Philadelphia Orchestra, McLean Orchestra, Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra and IBIS: A Chamber Music Society. Ultimately, she found a home with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra where she performed for 12 years with a variety of ballet companies, the Kennedy Center Honors, and the Washington National Opera. (Fun Fact: Her boss was Placido Domingo!)
Times change, and conditions change. She left the job and returned home to New Jersey, where she carried on free-lancing, playing with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, American Ballet Theatre, Opera Theatre Montclair, Papermill Playhouse, and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. She was invited to perform in the newly formed Montclair Orchestra for its inaugural concert. She also teaches at Frelinghuysen Middle School and at Cellospeak, a summer workshop for adult amateur cellists held at Bryn Mawr. More recently, she has begun to arrange a capella choral works for cello ensembles of various sizes and write some original pieces, too. In January 2019, she threw her hat in the ring once more, auditioning for principal of the Reading Symphony Orchestra ..... and won!
Amy lives in Northern New Jersey with her family, her golden retrievers, and a ridiculously sociable cat. She plays on a Raffaele and Antonio Gagliano cello made in Napoli in the early 1800’s.
Her interest in vocal music stems from early experiences with opera orchestras; the very first was Verdi’s “Falstaff” with a small New Jersey company when she was still in high school. (We will spare you the year.) As a student at the Eastman School of Music, she participated in a summer festival, the Heidelberg Schloss-Spiele, which featured opera performances in the courtyard of the castle. Another concert during that summer in Germany was a performance of Haydn’s “Creation” at the monastery where “The Name of the Rose” was filmed. Very picturesque!
Amy wrested two degrees from Eastman, studying with Steven Doane and Paul Katz. While a grad student, she was Mr. Doane’s teaching assistant and the cellist with The Olivier Trio, Eastman’s first piano trio-in-residence, which performed in Rochester and New York City, and competed in the Fischoff Competition. (They didn’t win, but they did get their picture in the South Bend paper.) She spent four summers at Tanglewood where she had the opportunity to play for Joel Krosnick of the Juilliard Quartet (Joel has retired in the meantime) and Yo-yo Ma in a variety of master classes, including a rare chance to perform “Schelomo” with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. Conductors she performed under included Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa and Leonard Bernstein.
Her professional road led down years of free-lance work throughout the Mid-Atlantic. It started with the predictable struggling-artist jobs in retail and waitressing, proving that just because you love the food doesn’t mean you’ll be any good at serving it to other people. Eventually, she was able to break into the worlds of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Baltimore Opera Company (no link, because the company has closed), Harrisburg Symphony, Sundays at Three, Philadelphia Orchestra, McLean Orchestra, Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra and IBIS: A Chamber Music Society. Ultimately, she found a home with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra where she performed for 12 years with a variety of ballet companies, the Kennedy Center Honors, and the Washington National Opera. (Fun Fact: Her boss was Placido Domingo!)
Times change, and conditions change. She left the job and returned home to New Jersey, where she carried on free-lancing, playing with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, American Ballet Theatre, Opera Theatre Montclair, Papermill Playhouse, and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. She was invited to perform in the newly formed Montclair Orchestra for its inaugural concert. She also teaches at Frelinghuysen Middle School and at Cellospeak, a summer workshop for adult amateur cellists held at Bryn Mawr. More recently, she has begun to arrange a capella choral works for cello ensembles of various sizes and write some original pieces, too. In January 2019, she threw her hat in the ring once more, auditioning for principal of the Reading Symphony Orchestra ..... and won!
Amy lives in Northern New Jersey with her family, her golden retrievers, and a ridiculously sociable cat. She plays on a Raffaele and Antonio Gagliano cello made in Napoli in the early 1800’s.