Lizzie Ball
Violin, Vocals, Creative Producer
“She set the place on fire with her solo performance”
San Francisco Chronicle
Born in Derbyshire, England and based in London, Lizzie Ball is a violinist, vocalist, concert producer, orchestra leader, and founder of Classical Kicks Productions. Read More
PRESS
“Lizzie Ball’s impressive command of these moments added a real force to the programme and helped to create this thoroughly unique tone.” Read full review.
All the Ends of the World with The Sixteen
“A seamless exercise in musical enchantment”
The Independent
“Classical Kicks is excellent. Lizzie Ball has proved herself to be not only a first rate musician but also a brilliant producer who really knows how to give the audience huge pleasure”
Joyce Hytner OBE, The Royal Court Theatre
"If the daunting pin-drop silence of a classical auditorium is lacking, the audience at Classical Kicks still listens with the respectful and focused hush of a jazz club"
Classical Music Magazine UK
“Full marks to orchestra leader Lizzie Ball for following Kennedy’s mercurial cues; a touch of Hendrix here, a spot of Duke Ellington there. These musicians had a ball, and so did we”
The Yorkshire Post UK
"Anyone who thinks classical music is boring needs to go to a Classical Kicks show – we were applauding so hard I had to take off my Fitbit; it thought I’d walked an extra km before the end of the first half "
John Lewis Intranet UK
“Lizzie Ball has a rebellious streak that refuses to allow her to conform to the stereotypical image we have of a classical musician”
Artsbeat Magazine
“How often do we come across such eclectic nights? Not often enough, but Classical Kicks - the brainchild of musician Lizzie Ball – does just that. The glamorous ‘multi-genre’ violinist is exploring fusions between classical, jazz, world and Latin music. May Classical Kicks produce many more diverse evenings like these”
Fringe Opera
“Jeff Beck wisely mixed into the set a few classic rock covers but the audience seemed mesmerized, especially when his young violinist Lizzie Ball took a solo, or even channeled Mary Ford's vocals on the Les Paul classic "How High the Moon”
U.S Rolling Stone
“Elizabeth Ball lit the place on fire with one of her solos”
San Francisco Chronicle
PRESS REVIEWS FOR LIZZIE AS PRODUCER/PERFORMER
Corrido: A Ballad For The Brave
“I was blown away by this deeply felt show, a passionate love letter to an important artist, don’t miss it.”
Laurence Boswell, Artistic Director of The Ustinov Theatre, Bath
“Corrido is enriching and inspiring; a visual and aural Mexican feast. Most of all it links all of our stories to Frida’s, a tribute she would have felt honoured and humbled by, because that was at the very heart of what she sought to do as an artist.”
Joanna Moorhead, British Journalist and Feature Writer for The Guardian and The Observer
“I have never heard or seen an audience so struck with a piece as I was with, Corrido: A Ballad For The Brave. From the writing, the score to the strikingly original visual representation of her works and her life; we were totally immersed with an array of magnificent performances across the board. To have the knowledge, skill and chutzpah to attempt such a work and bring it to light in such a contemporary way, all credit should go to Emily Blacksell and Lizzie Ball - true artists and originators. This has to be seen by the widest audience possible.”
Joe Talbot, Founding Director of Short Form Film Company and Director of Jamie Johnson
“The fusion of creative forms in Corrido: A Ballad for the Brave, makes for story-telling par excellence. The beating heart of the piece is all Frida and is felt though the supreme symphony of musicians and the exquisite and imaginative videography and animation.”
Fiona Lindsay, Creative Content Producer of Digital Theatre
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BIOGRAPHY
Born in Derbyshire, England and based in London, Lizzie Ball is a violinist, vocalist, concert producer, orchestra leader, mentor and founder of Classical Kicks Productions.
Lizzie holds an MA in music from Cambridge University (St John’s College), and postgraduate diplomas in solo performance from the Royal College of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Internationally in demand as a performer across classical, jazz and improvised music, Lizzie created and founded Classical Kicks Productions in 2012, initially as a residency at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz club in Soho, in an ongoing mission to bring classical music to a wider audience in accessible, diverse venues and contexts.
Lizzie regularly collaborates with duo partners accordionist Miloš Milivojević and pianist James Pearson as well as with her own Classical Kicks Ensemble featuring Miloš, cellist Gabriella Swallow and percussionist James Turner. Lizzie has a busy international freelance career as a solo performer and orchestra leader. She is Assistant Concertmaster for the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and Guest Director of Mikroorkéstra, a young, dynamic chamber orchestra based in Lithuania. In 2021, Lizzie was appointed Violin Professor for the Britten-Pears Foundation’s acclaimed ‘Aldeburgh Young Musicians’ Scheme.
Highlights of her work as a featured solo violinist include the European Stadium Tour with Hugh Jackman (orchestra leader for his 2019 tour ‘The Man, The Music, The Show’), Ariana Grande and Liam Gallagher. Lizzie was leader of Nigel Kennedy’s handpicked ‘Orchestra of Life’ for 8 years and performed duet solo concertos with Nigel during this time in major venues across the UK.
As a creative producer and composer, Lizzie scores productions which include a heavy interplay between immersive visuals and sound design. In 2022, she collaborated with videographer Heather Britton on a large-scale audio-visual production about climate change with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, entitled ‘All the Ends of the World’ in which Lizzie co-produced and performed an improvised violin part over renaissance choral music.
In 2018, Lizzie co-created ‘Corrido: A Ballad for the Brave’ with theatre producer and director Emily Blacksell, an immersive audio-visual journey about the life and times of Frida Kahlo and her contemporaries, featuring Lizzie’s own compositions alongside Mexican and classical music pieces. The widely acclaimed premiere of ‘Corrido’ was in association with the V and A Museum’s exhibition of Frida’s own personal items and clothing, entitled ‘Making Herself Up'.
In 2021, following years of workshops and outreach projects alongside her performing commitments, Lizzie qualified as an ICF accredited Transformational Coach. Her business ‘Set your Stage Coaching’ aims to particularly focus on performance anxiety and communication and in 2024 Lizzie was engaged as an Associate for the internationally acclaimed Bateman Communication company, assisting top business leaders to harness the challenges they face with public facing work.
Recent projects include a recording of ‘The Heartbeat Sessions’ in 2024 with The Sixteen, Harry Christophers and James Pearson – a unique album featuring music by Oscar Peterson, James Macmillan and Peter Warlock. Earlier this year, Lizzie featured as the only musician/composer for a one-off exclusive performance for Word Theatre/Fane Productions at The Old Vic Theatre of ‘She Speaks’, the acclaimed book written by Dame Harriet Walter, in which she explores the ideas of how Shakespeare’s female characters might have rewritten their scripts, given the chance. The cast featured 8 of the UK’s most celebrated actresses alongside Dame Harriet including Juliet Stevenson, Olivia Williams and Leah Harvey.
Future performance highlights include Buxton Festival as special guest with jazz star Clare Teal and the Orchestra of Opera North and appearances at Chiltern Arts and Lichfield Festivals. Later this year, Lizzie begins a new role created especially for her – Creative Director of Ronnie Scott’s Classical, a new arm of the Ronnie Scotts brand, bringing over 50 classical concerts a year to its newly refurbished upstairs venue, due to open in February 2026.
Lizzie is the recipient of many awards including an Honorary Masters MA degree from The University of Derby in 2018, as well as support from major UK funding bodies Arts Council England, PRS Foundation/Spotify fund, and a Royal Philharmonic Society Enterprise Award, for ‘Set your Stage’. Lizzie was recognised as one of the UK’s most inspirational females in a feature run by the UK national newspaper The Daily Mail and is currently an Associate Artist for Lichfield Festival.
Collaborations
Lizzie Ball & James Pearson
“Encounters with Gershwin"
A musical and storytelling exploration of the relationships and fascinating encounters between Gershwin and his contemporaries.
Classical Kicks Ensemble
Lizzie Ball - Violin/Vocals/Creative Director
Miloš Milivojević - accordion
Gabriella Swallow - cello
James Turner - percussion
Also available as a quintet with special guest James Pearson - piano
Created and founded by Lizzie Ball, The Classical Kicks Ensemble was formed from the success of the numerous Classical Kicks resident live concerts held at London’s iconic Ronnie Scott’s Jazz club between 2012-2020. During this residency, Lizzie combined a wide range of music and musicians from string quartets to beat boxing flute players. Collaborations with artists included a unique programme of plain chant and Purcell with The Sixteen choir, performed alongside arrangements of works by Oscar Peterson. The Classical Kicks Ensemble perform a programme of primarily classical music, flavoured with pieces from world, folk, bluegrass, and jazz musical genres, all presented in Lizzie’s warm and informal style with a storytelling approach and audience engagement at the fore. The core quartet of players are in demand on the international stage and each have the unique ability to improvise as well as perform core classical repertoire.
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