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Captioned by StreamCaptions.com

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[funky hip-hop music playing]

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-What's your name?

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-I'm Lindsey Stirling. I'm from Utah

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and I play hip-hop violin.

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-Well, let's see what you can do.

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-[playing violin in tune with hop-hop music]

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[crowd cheering]

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I'm Lindsey Stirling and I am a violinist.

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[playing rock tune]

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What makes me a little bit unique is

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yes, I was classically trained for years and years,

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but I now play with rock bands, I do rock music,

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and, most recently, I like to play hip-hop music

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while I dance.

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So, I write some of my own original music

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that's, you know, backup tracks.

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My music is all original,

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but mostly what I've been doing lately

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is I'll take popular radio hits that I really like,

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'cause I love to go dancing.

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I love to go, you know, bust my white-girl moves

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on the dance floor.

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So, I take songs that I love to listen to,

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and I love to party to,

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and I'll write violin parts over it

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that are my own completely original

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elaborations of the track, the original music,

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and that's something that people seem to really like,

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because it's a recognizable song,

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but yet something completely unique that I add to it.

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So, my dad had all these records,

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all these classical records that he would play,

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and I can remember dancing to Mozart

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and Scheherazade as a little girl with my sisters.

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And I also remember my dad

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would look through the newspapers

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and circle all the free concerts in town

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and he would take us to all these

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classical orchestral concerts.

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You know, and I would hear the violins

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and I just longed to be a violinist after hearing that.

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At the age of five,

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I began begging my parents for lessons.

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They couldn't afford to give me lessons,

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so my mom searched around town

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and made calls looking for a teacher

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that would give me lessons every other week

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instead of every week,

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and no one would agree to teach a six-year-old little girl

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that infrequently,

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'cause they didn't think that anyone could learn at that rate,

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but my mom kept searching

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until finally she found one teacher that she could afford

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and that would do this

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and that was my beginning to the violin.

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I first kind of stepped away from my classical training

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when I was 16 and I joined the rock band Stomp on Melvin.

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At the time, it was totally just a fun thing

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and we were all just about having fun.

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We went on a little rock tour

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and, you know, it was just fun and games,

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but it was such an inspiration to me,

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because for the first time,

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I realized that the violin could be fun.

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It could be exciting

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and you didn't have to just stick in this mold regiment

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of proper and classical.

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So, that was when I first realized

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the endless limitations of the violin.

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[violin playing]

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Music is completely my creative outlet.

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It's how I love to express myself.

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It's how I release my emotion

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and it's just something that I absolutely love to do.

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Not only do I love to play the violin for myself,

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but I enjoy it so much when I can see people smile

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or when I can their emotions come across,

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you know, when they hear my playing,

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and that just brings me so much joy

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when I can tell that other people

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are enjoying what I love to share.

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Hey, I'm Lindsey Stirling and you're watching Urban Media.

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[playing dramatic tune]

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Now that I've gotten a lot of exposure

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and that I realize that people really enjoy what I do,

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the future is wide open and I'm actually super-excited

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because I took this semester off school

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just to kind of try the life of a musician.

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I'm kind of in limbo right now.

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I've contacted several agents and whatnot

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and I'm just pursuing my own soloist career

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as a violinist.

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[playing folk music]

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I have to thank my old teacher.

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My first teacher, Janna Allred,

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who put up with a lot from me.

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She was so patient,

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and even though I didn't always practice

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and even though I probably gave her some attitude,

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she's the best.

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So, thank you, Janna Allred, my teacher.

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And also to my band boys, Stomp on Melvin.

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You guys are the ones that gave me my start,

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so Randy, Adam, Brandon, and Jeff,

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you guys are the best.

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And, Mom and Dad, I love you

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and thanks so much for your endless support and love.

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Lindsey Stirling, signing out.

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-I'm NAWM.

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-I'm AkbAr.

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-Red Spectral.

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-Killawatts.

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-(all) And you're watching Urban Media.

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-I put it on YouTube and made this little...

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[child yelling in background]

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Oh, my God. I'm gonna kill whatever else makes noise.

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It was a bug or a child.