ICYMI: #WomanCrushWednesday IG Live featuring Abigail Stahlschmidt

BY LAURA HARPER/WWR Staff Writer

When it comes to pushing traditional musical boundaries in the best way possible, a woman with incredible experience is renowned violinist, composer, and model Abigail Stahlschmidt.

Stahlschmidt grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, where she began taking violin lessons at the age of four with the encouragement of her parents and picked up modeling alongside her sister at the age of twelve. She then went on to attend the University of Missouri for a concentration in music while continuing to travel full-time for her modeling career.

“Modeling and music have always gone hand-in-hand for me,” Stahlschmidt said.

Stahlschmidt was classically trained in violin and played in orchestras throughout college. However, that was when she started experimenting with her own styles; for example, she started combining classical violin elements with heavier genres such as rock and metal. Although she says her professors were mostly supportive of her, they did not quite understand this choice.

“I was able to have classical training alongside finding my voice as a musician,” Stahlschmidt said.

While the alternative skills she picked up were not learned in school with classical training, Stahlschmidt said she soon discovered that she had a talent for learning music by ear, which eventually came to be a very useful skill when composing her own pieces.

“I got good at coming up with ideas in my head and translating them into parts,” Stahlschmidt said.

One of her original composed pieces is a song called “Dawn of War.” This piece features 26 musicians who recorded all of their pieces separately due to the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic. These musicians are comprised of Stahlschmidt’s friends and inspirations, including players from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Stahlschmidt says she hopes for “Dawn of War” to become part of a full symphonic rock album to be released in the future, including other pieces of her original work.

While some female musicians face challenges as women in the music industry, especially in the more male-dominated genres of rock and metal, Stahlschmidt says she feels honored to lay a foundation for other women looking to pursue music careers in those genres.

“In rock music, there is not as much of a preconceived notion of what a woman in rock should be,” Stahlschmidt said.

For other women who may want to pursue a career in rock and metal or those who are picking up a violin for the first time, Stahlschmidt encourages them to find “their thing” and get really good at that, without focusing too much on trying to copy the exact career path of another musician. For her, she found value and excitement in forging her own career among the frustrations.

“There are always peaks and valleys in the process of building a career,” Stahlschmidt said. “You have to be willing to stick it out until you learn to own your voice.”

For more on Abigail Stahlschmidt, you can check out the entire interview on the @OfficialWomenWhoRock IGTV channel on Instagram.