Lindsey Stirling | |
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Lindsey Stirling in 2014
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Born | September 21, 1986 |
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Years active | 2007–present |
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Website | lindseystirling |
Lindsey Stirling (born September 21, 1986) is an American violinist, dancer, performance artist, and composer. She presents choreographed violin performances, both live and in music videos found on her eponymous YouTube channel, which she created in 2007.
Stirling performs a variety of music styles, from classical to pop and rock to electronic dance music. Aside from original work, her discography contains covers of songs by other musicians and various soundtracks. Her music video, "Crystallize" finished as the eighth-most watched video of 2012, and her cover version of "Radioactive" with Pentatonix won Response of the Year in the first YouTube Music Awards in 2013. Stirling achieved one million singles sold worldwide by August 2014. As of March 2017, her Lindseystomp YouTube channel exceeded 9 million subscribers and over 1.7 billion total views.
Stirling has been named in Forbes magazine's 30 Under 30 In Music: The Class Of 2015. Forbes notes her quarter-finalist position on America's Got Talent season five in 2010, a No. 2 position on the Billboard 200 for her second album Shatter Me in 2014, and her 9 million subscribers on YouTube.
Stirling's eponymous debut album was a commercial success in Europe, selling 200,000 copies in Germany, winning a platinum certification; three additional certifications were given by Austria, Switzerland and Poland. The debut album was nominated for the 2014 Billboard Music Awards for Top Dance/Electronic Albums. Stirling's second album Shatter Me won the 2015 Billboard Music Awards for Top Dance/Electronic Album.
Stirling describes her childhood as being raised in a modest household and stated "I would not trade my humble childhood years for anything else." Due to her family's financial limitations, her parents could only afford to find a violin teacher who would give her half lessons. Told by instructors that "a child isn't going to learn how to play in 15 minutes a week", her parents persisted, and at the age of five she began taking violin lessons.