Katherine Button, Second Violin

Katherine Button, Violinist

Violinist Katherine Button, whose chamber music coaches were David Abel and Bonnie Hampton of the Francesco Trio, graduated from Stanford University with Distinction and Honors in Music. She has also studied at Mills College with Colin Hampton, cellist with the Griller Quartet; the Royal College of Music in London, England; and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Thanks to her mother, who recognized and fostered her musical abilities, Katie grew up knowing she was a musician. Steeped in the Bach Cantatas that her mezzo-soprano mother sang with the San Francisco Bach Choir and San Francisco Symphony Chorus, it was only natural that her first professional job, at age 17, was playing for the Bach Choir as her teacher sat next to her on the first stand and her mother sang. A generation later, Katie’s oldest son, Karl, was all of eight when he sang in a Bach festival choir of men and boys while she played in the orchestra. “One of the best moments of my life!” she exclaims.

Chamber music has been a constant in Katie’s life. In high school and college, free time was often filled reading string quartets with friends. Her recent chamber music efforts have been with the Berrow Chamber Music Festival in Somerset, England during the summers 2000-2008, and with the Temescal Quartet.

While still a senior at Stanford University, Katie joined the San Jose Symphony She became Assistant Concertmaster the following year. During subsequent years in the midwest, she was a member of the Columbus (Ohio) Symphony and the Orchestra of Illinois in Chicago. Since her return to California in 1990, she has freelanced in the Bay Area, playing most of the season with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, and often with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and the Oakland-East Bay and California Symphonies.

Katie teaches violin and viola at her home in Alameda, where playing duets and trios with your friends and/or your teacher is part of the curriculum.

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