About Us
The Badke Quartet, formed in 2002, is widely recognised as one of Britain’s finest string quartets. The 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 studied 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 perform at concert halls and festivals in the UK and abroad, including Aldeburgh, Montreux, Bad Kissingen, Malmö, Mecklenburg, Ljubljana, Santander, Aix-en-Provence, Verbier Presteigne, West Cork, London’s Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, and the Musikverein in Vienna.
Future plans include a return to the Concertgebouw, a tour of the USA and a performance at the Haydn String Quartet Festival at the Court Theatre in Esterhazy Palace.
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 frequently broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 as well as on Classic FM, Radio Classique (France), Lyric FM (Ireland), ABC Classic FM (Australia) and for the European Broadcasting Union. In 2007, the Quartet won 1st prize and audience prize at the 5th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition.
The Quartet’s releases of works by Brahms, Britten, Mendelssohn and Haydn have been received to widespread acclaim. The Scottish Herald pronouncing that Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet was “heart-stoppingly expressive, hypnotically concentrated…essential listening”.
Always keen to champion new music, last season saw the Quartet premiere two new works written specially for them at Kings Place in London.
The Quartet holds its own festival at Kingsand in Cornwall, bringing chamber music to the beautiful Cornish coast each summer holding concerts in a variety of beautiful venues.
Since September 2014, the Badkes are Quartet-in-Residence at Royal Holloway University in London.
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 Stradivari Trust, Musicians Benevolent Fund, Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust, Fidelio Charitable Trust and several private sponsors for their continued support.
The Quartet play on a fine set of instruments. Charlotte performs on the 1685 ‘Gagliano’ Stradivarius; Emma, a Peter Guarnerius violin from 1672; Jon plays a Giovanni Grancino viola from 1692; and Nathaniel is performing on Grancino cello from 1695.
