An exhausted Lindsey Stirling was in a hotel room in Rome, recovering from a performance earlier that July evening and talking about the tour that she’s bringing to the U.S.
“It’s a pretty strenuous athletic show,” Stirling said. “It’s either gonna make me crippled by 40 or it’s gonna keep me going forever. I’m not sure.”
That’s the show that the dynamic violinist and dancer will bring to Portsmouth’s Atlantic Union Bank Pavilion Wednesday.
Stirling is known for her crowd-rousing appearances on “America’s Got Talent” and her YouTube channel which has drawn millions of followers. It might be surprising to fans that Stirling had to grow to appreciate her style. Her trepidation was rooted in her relationship with classical music and its contrast to her amalgamation of pop, hip-hop, rock and electronic music. Stirling, who was born in California and grew up in Arizona, has played classical music since childhood.
“The classical community can be quite cutthroat. It’s a hard world to be a part of and I felt like I got a little burned by it. So I almost had a breakup with classical music years ago.”
Stirling’s near-breakup, which came after a much-criticized performance with a symphony orchestra in London, came a few years after she started cultivating her sound.
“I thought ‘I’m good enough to make it in the classical world. I’ll be somewhere in the back of the orchestra. But I’m never gonna get to choose what I play. I’m never gonna get to be a soloist,’” she said. “That was a moment where I needed to figure out what I liked about this and if I want to keep going enough to do that. That’s when I ended up swaying a little bit.”
That sway had started when Stirling joined a rock band in high school. But it really took off when she started writing the music that earned her the designation of “hip-hop violinist” when she appeared on AGT in 2010.
That performance led to her music video for “Spontaneous Me,” which was uploaded to her YouTube channel and propelled her to stardom.
Two years later, Stirling, who had experimented with adding dubstep and other electronic music to her compositions, released her 2012 self-titled debut album. That was also when Stirling began dancing, a rarity for a violinist.
“I was really awkward looking for a while and you know, I’m still a work in progress because I feel like I’m trying to keep up with these kids who’ve danced their whole lives,” the 36-year-old said. “But I feel like I’ve come such a long way. And I’m pretty proud of all that effort because it was years of work.”
That work is manifested in the show that Stirling painstakingly puts together, blending the music from her six albums with tightly choreographed dancing, aerials and striking lighting.
“I do put months of work into every show,” she said. “It’s one thing to have a set list, but then to figure out all those transitions and where to put costume changes, where to put the dancers, when to put in the talking moments, when to have enough time to get on the aerial apparatus and how to get down smoothly, all these little things. It takes a lot to make a show feel effortless and smooth.”
___
If you go
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Atlantic Union Bank Pavilion, 16 Crawford Circle, Portsmouth
Tickets: Start at $38.50
Details: ticketmaster.com
