About Us
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The Badke Quartet, celebrating its 10th anniverary this year, is widely recognised as one of Britain’s finest string quartets. Winners of the 1st prize and audience prize at the 5th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in 2007, the Badke Quartet has received widespread acclaim for its energetic and vibrant performances.
The Quartet has worked with some of the world’s greatest string quartets and regularly study with Gabor Takács-Nagy at IMS Prussia Cove and members of the Alban Berg Quartet in Cologne. From 2005 to 2009 the Quartet held the Senior Leverhulme Chamber Music Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music.
The Badke Quartet regularly performs at concert halls and festivals in the UK and abroad, including the Aldeburgh, Aix-en-Provence and Verbier Festivals, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, London’s Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, and the Musikverein in Vienna.
The Quartet enjoys collaborations and has worked with musicians such as Mark Padmore, Sir Thomas Allen, John Mark-Ainsley, Nicholas Daniel, Simon Crawford-Philips, Simon Lane and Malcolm Martineau.
No strangers to the airwaves, the Badke Quartet has broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM, Lyric FM (Ireland), ABC Classic FM (Australia) and for the European Broadcasting Union.
The 2010/11 season saw the Quartet perform all over the UK and Ireland; invited for a second residency at Gresham College in London and hold a residency Britten-Pears in Aldeburgh. It premeiered two new works written specially for the Quartet at Kings Place in London and further afield played in Norway, Spain and made its début at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Next season the Quartet performs all over the UK, and has engagements in Germany, Spain and Slovenia. It will also make its debut in Denmark and Sweden.
Believing strongly in the importance of education work, in building new audiences and making chamber music much more accessible, the Quartet performs in schools across the UK, bringing chamber music to hundreds of children in conjunction with the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust.
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. Lana performs on a Nicolaus Bergonzi violin dating from 1786, on loan from Florian Leonhard Fine Violins; Emma plays on a Nicolò Amati violin from 1672, kindly on loan from a private donor; Jon plays a Marino Capicchioni viola and Jonathan is performing on an fine Italian cello from c.1730.
Jonathan’s cello is currently made available to him by the Jonathan Byers Cello Trust, which has been established by Nigel Brown and the Stradivari Trust to raise the funds needed to secure the instrument.
