Jennifer Frautschi is the newest young American violinist who is going places. The Los Angeles native, who opens the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra's 10th anniversary season Friday, comes with a fistful of prizes, including the GM/17 Magazine Concerto Competition. She won an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1999.

Ms. Frautschi

        Ms. Frautschi, 28, spoke on Tuesday with the Enquirer by phone from Manhattan, N.Y., where she lives.

        Question: How did you become interested in music?

        Answer: I started the violin when I was 3. My older sister, Laura, who is also a violinist, had started the violin when she was 3. So I wanted to be doing what she was doing. Our parents are music lovers — but not musicians. It's just kind of a fluke that we both became violinists. (Laura Frautschi is associate concertmaster of New York City Opera Orchestra.)

        Q: What was some important advice your teachers gave you?

        A: Robert Lipsett, who I studied with when I was 12 to 18, taught me the importance of the daily routine. Just like an athlete has to go through training every day, a musician has to, as well.

        From Robert Mann (former first violinist of the Juilliard Quartet) I learned the importance of trying to communicate something with every note you play — the equivalent of living every moment of your life to the fullest.

IF YOU GO

What: Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, James R. Cassidy, conductor; Jennifer Frautschi, violinist.    When: 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday     Where: Greaves Concert Hall, NKU    Tickets: $13 and $18. (859) 431-6216; kyso.org.    The program: Tchaikovsky, Coronation March for Alexander III; Violin Concerto; Symphony No. 4.

        Q: You tour extensively as a chamber musician and soloist. Were you in Manhattan during the attacks on the World Trade Center?

        A: I was actually returning to Manhattan on a train coming into the city when it happened. I was lucky to get into the city, because it was closed off after that.

        What's interesting is that, in the days following the attack, things have been very quiet. People are much more somber, but at the same time, much more friendly. It feels much more like a small village.

        Q: You have one CD of Ravel and Stravinsky (Artek AR-0006-2). What are your next recording plans?

        A: I just recorded another one this summer. It's unaccompanied violin works from the 20th century. I like music from the beginning of the 20th century: Bartok, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Ravel, Debussy.

        Q: As someone who is in the age group that orchestras are dying to attract, what would you say to them to help bring your peers to concerts?

        A: I think people in my generation are put off by the formality of concerts, and the length of them. What appeals to people in my generation is a format that's a little more welcoming. Prices of tickets also are a concern. A lot of people my age will go to concerts when they're free, or when tickets are really accessible.

        I think a lot of people are interested in hearing contemporary music, actually. They may be less inclined to go hear a concert of all-Beethoven, but interested in going to hear a concert where you have Stravinsky, something new, and some Mozart.

        Q: Do you have a favorite rock group?

        A: No (laughs). My serious rock listening was in the 80s, so I'm afraid of dating myself.

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