Having dedicated 13 years to the quartet repertoire the Badke Quartet are excited and thrilled to start their next venture, The Oculi Ensemble. Capitalising on their rich history of musical collaborations, they will be inviting some of the finest chamber musicians to share the stage branching out into larger and smaller combinations of up to eight players. The name Oculi came to us on a sunny trip in late February 2016. We were in Florida doing one of our last tours as the Badke Quartet. We were keen to find a name that represented the vision we had for the evolving Badke Quartet; a circle of musicians around the string quartet forming a larger, flexible ensemble. Our final concert of the tour was in a large church in South Florida. Directly above the stage was a beautiful dome shaped window. During the afternoon rehearsal, sunlight was pouring through this window creating a circle of light. It made us stop and stare up at this incredible piece of architecture. The architectural terminology for this structure is Oculi; “A circle or eye opening, particularly used in architecture or the central boss to a volute” We unaminously agreed that this was the perfect name for our new ensemble. A name that signified our vision of a complete circle of musicians. The Oculi Ensemble was born!

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