New Jersey cellist Lucas Button is a performer and teacher active throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. He is principal cellist of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic and a member of the cello sections of the Allentown Symphony and Cape Symphony. He previously held positions with the Virginia Symphony and New Bedford Symphony, and he has played frequently as a substitute musician with the Albany Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and
Syracuse Orchestra. He is a former member of The Orchestra Now (TŌN), an ensemble with which he performed Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote as
soloist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lucas has previously performed as soloist with the
Syracuse, Schenectady, and Catskill symphonies.
In May of 2021, Lucas collaborated with composers Rodney Lister and Miles Friday in performances of new works for solo cello. The project was a fundraising campaign for the National Alliance on Mental Illness in observance of Mental Health Awareness Month. Lucas has also performed chamber music in Rochester and Syracuse for If Music Be The Food, a benefit concert series in support of the hungry in communities across the United States. His chamber music appearances also include the Society for New Music in Syracuse, Society for Chamber Music in Rochester, and performances at the summer festivals at Tanglewood in Massachusetts and Stringwood in Minnesota and Iowa.
Lucas is an adjunct faculty member at Bard College and was previously on the faculty of Wharton Arts, Eastman Community
Music School, and Stringwood Chamber Music Festival. In
2021 he coached the cellists of the National Association for Music Education’s All-Eastern
orchestra, and regularly coaches cellists in the New Jersey Youth Symphony. He earned his Master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music and his Bachelor’s degree from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Lucas has been awarded the Samuel Hayes Memorial Cello Award from the Tanglewood Music Center and the Celentano Award for Excellence in Chamber Music from the Eastman School of Music. His cello mentors include Steven Doane, Rosemary Elliott, and Norman Fischer and he has studied chamber music with members of the Chiara, Concord, Juilliard, and Ying quartets. In addition to his professional life, Lucas is a home coffee roaster, a cyclist, and a novice bird
watcher.
pictured at left performing triage on a student’s cello
photo by Vicki Blazing
“TŌN cellist Lucas Button speaks with us about the excitement of getting to play rarely-heard pieces of music in The Orchestra Now, and tells us how he started roasting coffee in a popcorn popper!”