Picture a classical concert violinist. What images does your imagination evoke?
Let's get obvious givens out of the way: a dazzling light show, rock guitars, fantastical choreographed numbers, aerial acrobatics, dubstep beats and countless costume changes.
What's that? You were picturing a stuffy symphonic hall with players dressed in black formal attire playing music by composers who've been dead for centuries as little kids forced to attend squirm in their seats and old folks try in vain to quietly unwrap their hard candies?
Clearly, you need more Lindsey Stirling in your life.
The 36-year-old violinist and songwriter has very much carved out a unique musical niche since emerging on the national scene as a competitor on America's Got Talent in 2010. Right from the jump, she stood out as anything but your run-of-the-mill classical musician. Billed as a "hip-hop violinist," she'd dance across the stage playing to propulsive beats, while also displaying a bright charisma and eclectic fashion sense. She only made it to the quarterfinals, but she'd set the stage for her next chapter — one found by cultivating a large online following.
"I feel like the biggest guiding point for me was actually paying attention to the emergence of social media," Stirling says. "I started following all these YouTubers when YouTube was a brand new thing. I was like, 'What are these people doing?' And even though they were doing obviously a very different art style than me, and it was kind of the guiding post of wow, you can do anything on here and have a career and have a following doing what you love. You don't have to be what everybody tells you need to be. There's a place for anything."
YouTube unlocked Stirling's potential. As she began adding more high-energy electronic and dubstep sounds to back her virtuosic violin playing, she also started really focusing on creating a distinctive visual aesthetic to set herself further apart from the pack. Her music videos are dazzling productions: "Roundtable Rival" sees Stirling stomping things up in a high noon Western showdown with villainous bandits. "Til the Lights Go Out" cast Stirling as a leader of cave-dwelling female warriors engaged in a fantasy battle. "Snow Waltz" finds undead skeletal beauties discovering Christmas joys. And all that's before we get into videos with Mad Max-esque dance-offs, majestic ice enclaves, Beauty and the Beast cosplay, elemental shredding, zombies... you get the picture.
"There's really not a huge lane for the kind of stuff that I do, and there's not a lot of precedent. And so it is kind of like, OK, what feels right? What feels exciting to me?" Stirling says. "And I really think any artist can do that, but I'm sure there's a lot more pressure when you're trying to chase a radio hit or when you're trying to appease a label. And I'm just grateful that I just really kind of marched to the beat of my own drum and do whatever feels right at the time."
By staying true to herself and bridging the timeless and fresh instrumental realms, she appeals to audiences of all-ages. Her YouTube channel now boasts 13.7 million subscribers, and her videos have racked up over 3.5 billion views, in part because she's been able to stay relevant on various digital platforms as they emerge.
"I'm incredibly grateful for social media, and what it has allowed artists to do, and what it's allowed me to do," says Stirling. "It's always changing, but that's the exciting thing about it. I think that's one of the challenging things about being an artist today — you constantly have to keep up with what is new. Not only like trends that change every day, but it is crazy how many different platforms that I've had to learn. You really do have to kind of start from scratch on every single one of them. And it's both exciting, but very frustrating as well. Like, 'Oh, no! This new one's taking over called TikTok, and everybody says that you have to be on that now.'"
Stirling thrives online, but she considers herself most at home on the live stage. Even when she's working on albums (including a new one due in 2024), she contextualizes everything she does through the lens of how it will feel in-person.
"I didn't really want to be an influencer, I don't even like that word. It was never my intention to be someone who made a bunch of content online," says Stirling. "It wasn't even about making albums. I wanted music so I could go out and perform for people. And so still to this day, when I'm working on an album or any project, I'm like, 'How can I see this happening live? How would this song feel with choreography? How would this song feel with a live band?' Some songs are meant more for that radio listen, others need to be heard live. That's the way I like to write and the musician, and that's what gets me the most excited about any new project."
Seeing the results, you can tell she pours her all into the stage show in order to make it a spectacle of music, dance and more. While it might be an overstatement to call Stirling the Tom Cruise of the violin, good luck finding performers who are more into pulling off on-stage stunts.
"The most recent thing I've been tackling is training in aerial art. I love it. I have really enjoyed training on hoop and trapeze. And before I jump to the next thing, I am really enjoying getting more and more proficient in this, because I still feel like I'm a baby art form," says Stirling. "You know, I played the violin my whole life. I've now been dancing for a decade, and putting a ton of work into that. So aerial is newer, and I'm really excited to just kind of keep expanding on that. For the last three tours, every tour, I've done a little bit more. The routines have gotten more and more challenging, and it's exciting to feel more and more competent in something like that."
The live element also lets Stirling connect with her fans in a much more human way than the digital world allows. It's even led to some surprising revelations about how her music positively impacts listeners.
"I've heard quite a bit that music calms people. Parents have told me that if they have a child with Asperger's or autism, that it is a go-to tool they use when they need to kind of calm down their child. Or I've been told many times by soldiers that have PTSD that they listen to my music to get through PTSD, flashbacks moments. And that has been a really special thing, when people share with me that my music helps them through these anxiety or triggering moments."
And while she might not have exactly had any clear musical guiding lights on her own journey, Stirling is keenly aware that she now serves that role for young classical instrumentalists. Kids can play a string instrument and not have to only have musical dreams of joining a symphony orchestra or being a background session player — they could be the next Lindsey Stirling.
"I always hope to inspire anybody that, 'Hey, you can think outside the box.' Just because this is the way it's always been done in your field, doesn't mean it always has to be that way. It took me quite a long time to figure that out. And I'm really grateful that that lightbulb did go off in my head. It is exciting when I see other instrumentalists or just anybody paving their own path with what they feel." ♦
Lindsey Stirling, Walk off the Earth • Tue, Aug. 29 at 7:30 pm • $40-$438 • All ages • Northern Quest Resort & Casino • 100 N. Hayford Rd., Airway Heights • northernquest.com
