Badke Quartet

Haydn, Schumann and Beethoven

Tuesday 10 February 2009 • 7.30pm
St Margaret's Church, Huntly (map)

Tickets £8.00, £5.00 (concession), free (schoolchildren)
available from Brander Library, Orb's Bookshop, Rizza's shop, or at the door

The Badke Quartet, formed in 2002, is widely recognised as one of Britain's finest young 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 currently holds the Senior Leverhulme Chamber Music Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music, which involves them giving a concert series and coaching chamber music.

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.

All graduates from the RAM, 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 2006-2008 they were accepted onto the Alban Berg Quartet's chamber music class in Cologne, where they traveled once a month for a period of intensive study.

In 2007/08 the Quartet took on a touring residency with Britten-Pears in Aldeburgh, and returned to perform at Verbier Festival as well as being the main coaches in the Amateur Chamber Music Week. They also performed at many summer festivals such as Lichfield, Montreux, Mecklenburg and West Cork Chamber Music Festival in Ireland.

This season this season the Quartet has made its Musikverein debut in Vienna, will perform with Mark Padmore in France, tour Scotland 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 plays on a fine set of instruments on loan from the Royal Academy of Music's Collection, including two Gagliano violins, a Grancino viola and the Segelman Stradivarius cello.