Pop Music Violinists – Who’s Who

A list of popular music violinists, both past and present, including their bios and accomplishments.

Lindsey Stirling

When it comes to pop music violinists, there is one name that stands out above the rest, and that is Lindsey Stirling. Lindsey Stirling is a classically trained violinist who has taken the pop music world by storm with her unique style and electrifying performances.

Biography

Lindsey Stirling (born September 21, 1986) is an American violinist, dancer, performance artist, and composer. She presents choreographed violin performances, both live and in music videos found on her eponymous YouTube channel, which she created in 2007.

Stirling performs a variety of music styles, from classical to pop and rock to electronic dance music. Aside from original work, her discography contains covers of songs by other musicians and various soundtracks. Her debut album was Shatter Me in 2014; its singles “Crystallize” and “Roundtable Rival” reached respectively second and sixth on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart. She followed with three additional studio albums: Lindsey Stirling in 2016; Brave Enough in 2016; Artemis in 2019.

A former state champion Irvine California girl’s tennis player,[2] Stirling took up violin at the age of five.[3] She grew up listening to soundtracks such as The Phantom of the Opera and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.[4][5] While attending Brigham Young University, she suffered a hip injury during practice that sidelined her tennis career.[citation needed] needed] In an effort to gain weight while injured,[citation needed] she began gorging on sugary junk food as well as make-up,[citation needed] later developing bulimia nervosa,[citation needed] an eating disorder that would plague her for four years.[6][7][8]

Notable Works

Lindsey Stirling is a modern day musical phenomenon. A classically trained violinist, she draws on her training to create unique and unforgettable electronic music hybrids. She has released three studio albums, “Shatter Me” (2014), “Lindsey Stirling” (2012), and “Brave Enough” (2016).

Her music videos have been viewed over 1.9 billion times on YouTube, and her self-titled YouTube channel has amassed over 10 million subscribers. Lindsey has been named in Forbes magazine as one of the “30 Under 30” in the music category (2012, 2013), and she was the recipient of the Billboard Music Awards’ “Breakthrough Artist of the Year” award (2013). She has also won two Teen Choice Awards and one MTV Europe Music Award.

Accolades

Since Lindsey Stirling’s career began in 2007, she has won numerous awards and accolades. She was a quarter-finalist on America’s Got Talent in 2010, and her debut album was ranked the #1 Electronic Album on iTunes in 2012. In 2013 and 2014, she was nominated for two Grammy Awards. In 2015, she won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography.

2Cellos

Biography

2Cellos is a Croatian musical duo composed of classically trained cellists, Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser. Signed to Sony Masterworks since 2011, they have released four albums and play instrumental arrangements of well-known pop and rock songs as well as classical and film music. They perform mainly using both a standard electric cello and a five-stringed violoncello piccolo, among other variations.

Šulić was born in 1988 in Marinkovac, Croatia. He began playing the cello at age four and studied classical music at the Zagreb Academy of Music, where he studied under Valentin Cehar. Hauser was born in 1986 in Pula, Croatia and began playing the cello at age seven. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2009, where he studied under Ralph Kirshbaum.

The duo met while attending master classes given by Tibor width =”200″ align=”right” />Kiske at Uskoplje Summer School in 2010; they performed together for the first time late that year. They have been touring since 2011; their first album, 2Cellos, was released that year on Portrait/Masterworks. The album debuted at number 1 on Billboard’s Classical Albums chart and number 2 on the Billboard 200; it featured covers of songs by Muse, U2, Guns N’ Roses, Coldplay, Nirvana and Kings of Leon, among others. The album was produced by Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Lou Reed).

In 2012 they released an EP called In2ition featuring classical guitarist Miloš Karadaglić; it won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album in 2013. In February 2013 they were invited to perform with Sir Elton John at his annual Oscar party; later that year they toured Europe with him as his opening act. The duo’s second album Celloverse was released in January 2015; it debuted at number 1 on Billboard’s Classical Albums chart and number 4 on the Billboard 200 and featured covers of songs by Michael Jackson, Queen, Led Zeppelin and more.<

Notable Works

2Cellos is a Croatian cello duo, consisting of classically trained Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser. Signed to Sony Masterworks since 2011, they have released multiple albums and DVDs of popular music arrangements, including works by John Lennon & Paul McCartney, Kings of Leon, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Muse and Guns N’ Roses. Their version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart in March 2013.

Hauser was born in Pula, Croatia (then Yugoslavia), in 1986, to a musical family. His great-grandfather Antun served as principal double bassist under Arturo Toscanini at the NBC Symphony Orchestra; his grandfather Vladimir also played double bass; his father used to sing opera; and his mother is a piano teacher. Šulić was born in 1987 into a family of Bosnian Croat descent in Marinkovac near Slavonski Brod (then Yugoslavia), and comes from a musical family as well: his parents are violinists who perform together as the Tuliver Strings Quartet.(Šulić’s mother isn’t Croatian; she’s Bosnian.) He began playing cello at age four.

The two met at a master class with Vladimír Đorđević in Pula when they were teenagers (Šulić was 13 years old, Hauser was 15). They performed together for the first time at Šulić’s graduation concert in 2004.(source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2Cellos)

Accolades

Since their breakthrough 2012 performance with Elton John at Madison Square Garden, 2CELLOS have taken the music world by storm. With a widely viewed YouTube channel, numerous US/international tours and a growing global fan-base, classically trained musicians Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser have carved out a career crossing all genres of music.

With over 500 million YouTube views, 1 million Facebook fans and 700K followers on Twitter, the boys are currently touring in support of their latest release Score which includes renditions of well-known film themes including Game of Thrones®, Pirates of the Caribbean®, The Godfather™ and Schindler’s List™. The album also features original compositions such as “Now We Are Free” from Gladiator andTheme from Angry Birds™.

David Garrett

David Garrett (born David Bongartz; 4 November 1980) is a German pop and classical violinist. He has sold more than 3.5 million albums and has co-starred in three Hollywood films. Garrett was born in Aachen, Germany, to a German father and an American mother, and raised in Coblenz.

Biography

David Garrett (born David Bongartz; 4 September 1980) is a German classical musician and crossover violinist.

Born in Aachen, Germany, he began taking violin lessons at the age of four and made his concert debut in Lucy H Sears’ Children’s Orchestra in New York at the age of ten. Garrett studied at the Juilliard School and the Royal College of Music in London. After graduating, he became a successful session musician, playing on over 50 film scores including The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Moulin Rouge!.

On 8 October 2011, Garrett’s album Legacy was released. It topped the charts in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In December 2012, Garrett’s album Music was released. It topped the charts in Germany and Switzerland. At the Echo music awards 2013 David Garrett won 5 out of 7 possible awards, being honored as “Artist of the Year” (national), “Newcomer National” for his album Music as well as “Newcomer International” for his album Rock Symphonies – together with a further 2 awards for best “Live-Act National”. In October 2013 Garrett’srock album unbeliebt (“unpopular”) was released which reached platinum status after only 2 weeks.

Notable Works

David Garrett has released eleven studio albums, three of which have charted in several European countries. In 2010, Garrett released an album of pop-rock covers called “Rock Symphonies” which included renditions of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”, Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal”. The album topped the charts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In 2012, Garrett released an album of classical crossover renditions of well-known movie themes called “Music”. The album included Garrett’s versions of “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic, ” Catch Me If You Can” from the film of the same name and “Life is Beautiful” from La Vita è bella.

Accolades

David Garrett has been variously praised as “the James Bond of classical violinists”[1] and “the world’s fastest violinist”.[2] The Sunday Times said that “if anyone can make classical music sexy, it is David Garrett.”[3] At the peak of his career, he was the youngest solo musician ever to perform at New York’s Carnegie Hall.[4][5][6]

A 2006 profile in The Times commented on his “rock-star looks” and observed that he “plays the violin like it’s a machine gun.”[7][8] The same newspaper later said that Garrett had a “near-messianic belief in the power of music to heal the world.”[9] In 2008, he was ranked second in Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s top-earning young musicians, with estimated earnings of $11 million that year.[10]

Vanessa-Mae

Vanessa-Mae (born October 27, 1978) is a British pop and classical violinist. Her music style is self-described as “fusion”, as a combination of classical, folk, electronica, and pop music. She has sold over 10 million albums and has won four Grammy Awards.

Biography

Vanessa-Mae (full name Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson) is a British violinist with a distinctive and eclectic style. She was born in Singapore on October 27, 1978, to a Thai father and Chinese mother. Vanessa-Mae’s family moved to London when she was four, and it was there that she began her classical violin training with the legendary instructors Supatra Vanakorn and Galina Solodchin. Vanessa-Mae made her concert debut at the age of eight, and by the time she was ten she had already released her first album, “Violin Fantasy.”

In 1995, at the age of sixteen, Vanessa-Mae recorded her breakthrough album “The Violin Player,” which propelled her to international fame. The album featured a mix of original compositions and re-interpretations of classic pieces by Bach, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky. Vanessa-Mae’s unique style – blending elements of classical, pop, rock, and dance music – quickly won her a large and loyal following among music fans of all genres.

Over the course of her career, Vanessa-Mae has released over a dozen albums and earned numerous awards and honors. In 2006, she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her “services to music.” Vanessa-Mae remains one of the world’s most popular and successful violinists, with a global fan base that continues to grow with each new release.

Notable Works

Vanessa-Mae has recorded both pop music and classical music. For her pop music recordings, Mae draws on various genres including techno, house, R&B, and hip hop. Her crossover album The Violin Player (1995) entered the UK Albums Chart at number one. Classical crossover albums that followed also performed well, with Storm (1998), The Original Four Seasons and other Vivaldi Works (1999), and China Girl (2002) all reaching the top 20 in the UK Albums Chart.

Mae’s most notable work is her classical album Violin Future (1996), which made history as the fastest-selling violin album ever. It debuted at number one on the UK Classical Albums Chart and went on to achieve double platinum status in the United Kingdom. The album also topped Billboard’s Classical Albums chart in the United States for a record-breaking 20 weeks.

Accolades

In July 2006, the Sunday Times Rich List estimated Vanessa-Mae’s net worth at £32 million, making her the joint 190th richest person in the UK entertainment industry. In 2009, she was placed at number two in The Daily Telegraph’s top 10 richest young musicians in Britain with an estimated wealth of £36 million.

Mae was born on 27 October 1978 in Singapore, to a Thai mother and a Chinese father. Her family moved to London when she was four years old, and she was educated at Little Heath School and Millfield School. At the age of eight she started violin lessons with her father Siew-Kuan Chan and later continued her studies with Linzi Stoppard.