About Me
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.
Last 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 have worked with some of the world’s finest string quartets. They regularly study with Gabor Takács-Nagy at IMS Prussia Cove and in 2006-08 they were accepted onto the Alban Berg Quartet’s chamber music class in Cologne, where they travelled 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. They also performed at many summer festivals such as the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in Ireland and Lichfield Festival. Later this year the Quartet make their Musikverein debut in Vienna and in March 2009 they return to Ireland for a Music Network Tour. 2009 also sees the Quartet return to the Wigmore Hall twice and perform at London’s newest chamber music venue King’s Place.
No strangers to the airwaves, the Quartet has broadcast live on Classic FM, Lyric FM (Ireland), ABC Classic FM (Australia), the European Broadcasting Union and most recently performed live on BBC Radio 3.
The Badke Quartet is most 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 Quartet play on a fine set of instruments on loan from the Royal Academy of Music’s Collection including two Gagliano violin and the Segelman Stradivarius cello.
Details of future concerts can be found online at www.badkequartet.co.uk.
…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
I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.1
