Lindsey Stirling: duet of violin and dance

Hello everyone. Few days ago I discovered Lindsey Stirling's music. I enjoyed it a lot, so found time for studying this creative and extraordinary person.

Lindsey – charming actress, the violinist, who acts in many cities of the world. The fact that in the clips, concerts, the girl manages to combine dance and playing a violin surprised me very much. Such combination of talents has caused in me great admiration.

Biography:

Lindsey was born in 21th of September, 1986 in Santa Ana, California, and grew up in Gilbert, Arizona. She has begun to study playing a violin at early age, having inspired by city concerts. Only fifteen minutes per week because of a modest financial condition of Lindsey family. The girl studied through private lessons for twelve years. At her teenage years she has joined to the «Stomp on Melvin», later releasing a solo composition and winning the Junior Miss Arizona 2005. From 2009 to 2012, Lindsay lived in Provo, Utah, studying at Brigham Young University.

«Through my entire childhood, my family struggled financially, however I would not trade my humble childhood years for anything else». © Lindsey Stirling

Lindsey has taken part in America’s Got Talent 2010, having gained recognition and admiration of the audience, but in the quarter-finals, when trying to improve the dance, estimates of judges were disapproving, referring to the insufficient level of skills of the violinist.

After that Lindsey has started a solo career and Devin Graham has become interested in her. He decided to create with the actress the YouTube channel. Later, video "Spontaneous Me" has been posted, having brought to the girl great popularity. Lindsey was carried away by creation of clips, and she began to create them with David Graham. At the time of writing this article her channel, almost ten million subscribers and two billion views.

«A lot of people have told me along the way that my style and the music I do ... is unmarketable. But the only reason I'm successful is because I have stayed true to myself». © Lindsey Stirling

Compositions Stirling looks so alive, because the girl is not afraid to experiment with different genres, mixing, for example: violin, hip-hop and dubstep. And the introduction of their dance performances created her unique style, for which Lindsey practiced a lot.

Since 2012, about life of a violinist can be talked for a long time, because of her active participation in a variety of competitions, the release of clips, singles and albums:

1. In 2012 there was the first North American concert tour. After that, Lindsey went on a new tour of the United States, also visiting Canada and some European countries.
2. Composition "Crystallize" took 8th place in the popularity of video on YouTube with 42 million views at the end of 2012. Nowadays the clip has reached 182 million views.
3. Stirling a set of times appeared in charts of "Billboard".  In 2013 the album "Lindsey Stirling" took the second position in "Classical Albums" and the third in "Dance / Electronic Albums". The artist herself was in third place in "Classical Album Artists". A year later, her album "Shatter Me" was placed on the second position in the list of the most popular music albums Billboard 200.
4. In 2014, Stirling set off for the second tour of the world, starting with San Diego and performing 48 appearances in North America and 29 in Europe.
5. In the summer of 2014, the single "Crystallize" became a hit, gaining 100 million views on YouTube, and after, Lindsey was nominated for the Teen Choice Awards 2014.
6. In August, Lindsey announced that she started cooperations with many other musicians.

«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». © Lindsey Stirling

Slowly moving from the successes of the violinist's career directly to her work, I present you four main albums which are kindly chosen by me. Some albums on the course of years were republished.

Albums:

«Lindsey Stirling» 2012

Type: studio album

Genre: dubstep, classical crossover, classical music, electro house

Length: 45:17 (iTunes)

Track listing:

  № Title

1. «Electric Daisy Violin»
2. «Zi-Zi's Journey»
3. «Crystallize»
4. «Song of the Caged Bird»
5. «Moon Trance»
6. «Minimal Beat»
7. «Transcendence»
8. «Elements»
9. «Shadows»
10. «Spontaneous Me»
11. «Anti Gravity»
12. «Stars Align»

This album won all the awards deservedly. Almost all tracks in it are original compositions of the Lindsey who has said that her album became successful thanks to a set of original tracks and it is necessary to agree with it. The best songs in my opinion: Zi-Zi's Journey, Crystallize, Elements.

«Shatter Me» 2013-2014

Type: studio album

Genre: dubstep, classical crossover, classical music, electro house

Length: 47:07 (iTunes)

Track listing:

  № Title

1. «Beyond the Veil»
2. «Mirror Haus»
3. «V-Pop»
4. «Shatter Me» (feat. Lzzy Hale)
5. «Heist»
6. «Roundtable Rival»
7. «Night Vision»
8. «Take Flight»
9. «Ascendance»
10. «We Are Giants» (feat. Dia Frampton)
11. «Swag»
12. «Master of Tides»

The album is not inferior to the previous one. What is worth only the cover, which is so famous for the work in Lindsey. The image itself, according to the violinist, demonstrates her struggle with anorexia, exactly, like "Shatter Me" - a song telling this story. Lindsey said that the second album is much more progressive than the debut one, because all the songs are united by the theme of personal freedom and are based on her personal experience. All of them deserve attention, but my top has taken certain works: "Beyond the Veil", "Shatter Me", "Take Flight".

«Brave Enough» 2016

Type: studio album

Genre: classical crossover, EDM, electro house

Length: 55:22 (iTunes)

Track listing:

  № Title

1. «Lost Girls»
2. «Brave Enough» (featuring Christina Perri)
3. «The Arena»
4. «The Phoenix»
5. «Where Do We Go» (featuring Carah Faye)
6. «Those Days» (featuring Dan + Shay)
7. «Prism»
8. «Hold My Heart» (featuring ZZ Ward) »
9. «Mirage» (featuring Raja Kumari)
10. «Don't Let This Feeling Fade» (featuring Rivers Cuomo and Lecrae)
11. «First Light»
12. «Love's Just a Feeling» (featuring Rooty)
13. «Something Wild» (featuring Andrew McMahon)
14. «Gavi's Song»

A lot of compositions from the above album are performed with the help of recognized vocalists, such as: Christina Perri, Lecrae and others. As a result: eight tracks with vocals and six instrumental. For me, the album did not become a revelation, but a few tracks are one complete pleasure: "The Arena", "The Phoenix", "Gavi's Song".

«Warmer in the Winter» 2017

Type: studio album

Genre: classical crossover, Christmas music

Length: 42:52 (iTunes)

Track listing:

  № Title

1. «Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy»
2. «You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch» (featuring Sabrina Carpenter)
3. «Christmas C'mon» (featuring Becky G)
4. «Carol of the Bells»
5. «Angels We Have Heard on High»
6. «I Saw Three Ships»
7. «Let It Snow»
8. «Warmer in the Winter» (featuring Trombone Shorty)
9. «What Child Is This»
10. «All I Want for Christmas»
11. «Time to Fall in Love» (featuring Alex Gaskarth)
12. «Jingle Bell Rock»
13. «Silent Night»

Coming out a few days ago, this album did not have time to win the hearts of people and the awards. But it is necessary to say that the level of execution is not lower than the previous three, and, therefore, it is obligatory for listening, considering also that it was recorded mainly by "live instruments". I gave preference to such compositions as: "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch "(featuring Sabrina Carpenter)," Carol of the Bells "," Jingle Bell Rock ".

«It is very unnatural to dance while playing the violin. I had to practice so hard to learn how to do it but now it is part of my expression and it comes naturally. I have to know a song perfectly before I can even begin to move. Once I know a song really well I can then have fun dancing». © Lindsey Stirling

All of the albums above contain beautiful compositions. It is a pity that I did not happen to add selected songs to the post, but I am sure that many of you will appreciate Lindsey's talent and will allocate your top favorite songs by finding them in the corresponding services. Finally, I advise you to see out her clips, some of them are presented below:

Clips:

Social pages:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lindseystirlingmusic – the official page of the violinist in the most popular social network of the world.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindseystirling/ – official account with various photos of the violinist.

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/lindseystomp – its official channel, which publishes all of Lindsey's work.

https://www.youtube.com/user/LindseyTime – her second official channel, where she talks about her life and filming.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LindseyStirling – official account violinist, for fans of short messages.

Official site: http://www.lindseystirling.com – site where you can find news, information about Lindsey herself, as well as photos, music and videos.

Stores:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/378dH6EszOLFShpRzAQkVM

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/lindsey-stirling/id403025113

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/LindseyStirling/e/B00AN4LXLI/ref=ep_artist_tab_glance

Pledgemusic: https://www.pledgemusic.com/artists/lindseystirling

Yandex Music (free listening to all songs): https://music.yandex.ru/artist/1242711

Photo source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/leweb3 (License)