Biography

I was very lucky to have been brought up in a very creative and supportive environment. My mum is a cellist, both my brothers also played… and my Dad was the designated roadie and No.1 fan! One Christmas, when I was around 5, I was given an electric Barbie violin, that when you pushed a button on the fingerboard and put the bow on the bridge, would play a melody. Simply put, the rest was history.

My grandparents adored music and the arts so I was nothing but encouraged during the daunting early stages. I was only, kindly, asked to ‘put the violin down’ once by my Grandpa when I think ‘Fiddle Time’ by Kathy and David Blackwell was played one too many times. My first violin teacher Lorraine Kelly was a rockstar of the violin and the best musician I’ve ever met!

I was in the National Children’s Orchestra from the age of 9. This was my first experience of playing in an orchestral setting and quickly highlighted to me ‘that playing in an orchestra would be a pretty cool job’. I remember earning the nickname ‘Eliza Odd Socks’ as during multiple auditions for NCO I kept turning up in, funnily enough, odd socks. Even to this day I take pride in my colourful sock collection and will always match my socks to my outfits. I then started at RCMJD at the age of 10,
where I studied with Erica Dearing. I started at the Purcell School in 2014 and in 2016 I started learning with Professor Ani Schnarch at RCM.

During my studies with Ani, I’ve been fortune enough to have be given the opportunity to travel and perform across Europe and the U.S.A. I am so grateful for Ani’s exceptional knowledge and dedication; my confidence grew vastly within myself on and off stage, to which I didn’t think was possible during my final years of my studies.

The friends I have made through solo, chamber and orchestral courses have been the catalyst within me to keep playing and sharing music. I regularly perform with my duo partner Declan Hickey, guitar (Regency Duo) where we have performed all around the U.K. My most favourable performances have been with Declan, especially when we have taken outreach workshops and concerts within schools in East and North London and with The Music Man Project in Essex. I’m super excited for what the future holds— I’m a very easy going person and happy to try anything (except I’ll never try fish… couldn’t think of anything worse to eat). Some bucket list moments for me are to run a full marathon, to travel overseas with my Duo and go to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam!