September 21: Violinist Lindsey Stirling is 27-years-old today.

 

 

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Lindsay was born in Orange County, California, and lives in Utah. When she was a toddler, her dad would play his favorite classical records on an old record player, that magically turned her and her sisters into “twirling ballerina princesses.” Every week her father would make big red circles in the newspaper around all the free concerts he could find.

At the age of 5, she begged her parents to let her play the violin. After a year of relentless pleading, her mother found one plus a teacher that would give her 15 minute lessons a week. Lessons in classic violin continued for 12 years.

When she was 16, she joined a rock band with four friends called Stomp on Melvin. As part of her experience with Stomp on Melvin, Stirling wrote a solo violin rock song, and her performance helped her to win both the title of Arizona’s Jr. Miss in 2005 and the talent category of the National Jr. Miss Pageant.

In 2010, at the age of 23, she competed on the fifth season of America's Got Talent. She made it to the quarterfinals. Shortly after the show ended, cinematographer Devin Graham contacted her via Facebook in hopes of making a YouTube video together. A few months later, they scheduled to shoot a music video for her new song, "Spontaneous Me." It was filmed in May 2011.

The video gave a major boost to Stirling's popularity and she began making music videos for her YouTube channel regularly. Still close friends afterward, Graham eventually moved to Stirling's home state of Utah a few days after her "Transcendence" music video was released. They frequently collaborate on each other's YouTube videos; Graham films almost all of her videos, and Stirling often does backup camera work and assistance for his.

In her performances, Lindsey Stirling has experimented in combining violin with hip hop, DubStep and shuffling. Stirling's collaborations with other musicians and singers have included Shaun Barrowes (on Don't Carry It All--The Decembrists), Eppic (on By No Means), Jake Bruene and Frank Sacramone (on Party Rock Anthem-LMFAO), Peter Hollens (on Skyrim), Alisha Popat and Mackenzie Madsen (on We Found Love), and Megan Nicole (on Starships).

Lindsay is studying Therapeutic Recreation at Brigham Young University (BYU), and plans to work with at risk teenage girls in the future. On the side, she plays with random bands and plans to pursue a solo career in music.

“There are very few things that I love more than being on stage and performing,” she wrote on her Website. “But more than anything, I want to be a positive role model for teenage girls. Through my unique style of playing, I want to prove that you don’t have to conform to be accepted. The greatest Value comes from loving yourself for who you are.”

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For more about Lindsey, visit her Website at-

http://lindseystirlingviolin.com/

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