Balling studied violin with Hermann Ritter at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg and was an early convert to the viola alta, a large scale viola introduced by Ritter in 1876. By the late 1880s, Balling had established himself as a viola player of some note playing the instrument with great success in Wagner operas at the Bayreuth Festival,[1] and later conducted there from 1906 to 1909 and 1914.[2] Balling also promoted the viola alta in England. In 1910 he was the conductor of the Denhof Opera Company
