The Badke Quartet, formed in 2002, is widely recognised as one of Britain’s finest young string quartets. Recipients of the Leverhulme Junior Chamber Music Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music from 2003-05, and the Bulldog Scholarship for String Quartet at Trinity College of Music in 2006, the Badke Quartet has received widespread acclaim for its energetic and vibrant performances.
The Quartet hold the Senior Leverhulme Chamber Music Fellowship at the RAM for 2007-08, which involves them giving a concert series and coaching chamber music.
This summer saw the Quartet take 1st prize and the audience prize at the 5th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition.
The Quartet regularly performs at festivals in the UK and abroad, including the Aldeburgh, Verbier and Bellerive Festivals, Belfast Festival at Queen’s, Chichester Festivities and the London String Quartet Week. The Quartet has performed in some of the UK’s most prestigious chamber music venues such as the Wigmore Hall, St. George’s Bristol, St. David’s Hall Cardiff, Bridgewater Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, and the Royal Festival Hall.
The four players are graduates from London’s Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music, and they have worked with some of the world’s finest string quartets. They regularly study with Gabor Takács-Nagy at IMS Prussia Cove and in 2006 they were accepted for the Alban Berg Quartet’s chamber music class in Cologne, where they travel once a month for a period of intensive study.
This season sees the Quartet take on a touring residency with Britten-Pears in Aldeburgh, and return to perform in the Verbier Festival as well as being the main coaches in the Amateur Chamber Music Week. In July 2008, the Quartet will also play a major part in the West Cork Chamber Music Festival at Bantry House in Ireland.
No strangers to the airwaves, the Quartet has broadcast live on BBC Radio, and most recently performed live on Classic FM to promote the Mostly Mozart Festival at London’s Barbican Centre.
The Badke Quartet is grateful to the Hattori Foundation, Musicians Benevolent Fund, Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust, Fidelio Charitable Trust, Tillett Trust and several private sponsors for their continued support.
…the players exhibited a stylish, collegial spirit and a simple youthfulness that was carefully measured rather than intuitively overdone…
… this is a well-balanced quartet, led with attitude and flair by Heather Badke, its Wigmore Hall debut this June should be an exciting event.
The Strad – February 2007
…a beautifully balanced sound…countless felicitous details testified to the group’s excellent preparation and unquestionable qualities…
The Strad – December 2007
