Lindsay Deutsch has known exactly what she wanted to do with her life ever since she was two years old. "I was eating Cheerios in my living room." she says, "and I saw Itzhak Perlman performing on 'Sesame Street'. I was so mesmerized by his playing that I pointed to the TV and said to my mom right then and there. 'I'm going to be doing that someday!'" With a sigh, she relates that her mother made her wait until she was five to start having lessons. "Can you imagine where I could be by now if I hadn't had to wait those three years!" she exclaims, punctuating it with a laugh.

At 21, Deutsch's enthusiasm, style and classical music perspective have not only garnered her a national following but critical acclaim that defines her as possessing a maturity and onstage presence that belie her youth and make her one of the up and coming new artists whose career path will be worth watching.

She comes from a musical family, she tells me. "My mom teaches piano and my sister teaches violin." The latter, she explains, actually started out in engineering but decided it ultimately wasn't her calling. "My dad is an engineer but also plays and teaches trumpet.

She chuckles when I ask whether she plays other instruments. "During my Colburn Conservatory years we had to take piano for one of our required courses and I am now famous for being absolutely the worst piano student ever!"

She currently plays a 1742 Sanctus Seraphin on loan from the Mandell Collection of Southern California.

Her first professional appearance was when she was only six years old. "It was a televised concert in Houston, Texas which is where I lived until I was 14. My whole family moved out here to L.A. so that I could study with Robert Lipsett." That it was a big step for them to make on her behalf, is a significant show of support that has never been lost on her. "Bob is the best," she says, and my parents decided my future was worth the investment of making sure I had 1essons with him.

The list of Deutsch's appearances could easily fill an entire page. She has performed. with the New West Symphony, the Palm Springs Symphony, Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, the Fort Worth and Clear Lake Symphonies in Texas. the National Academy Orchestra and the California Philharmonic, just to name a few.

This coming weekend, in fact, she will be the featured soloist in the Cal Phil's "Tribute to John Williams" on the evenings of  February 24 and 25 at Pasadena's Ambassador Auditorium. I'll be playing 'Three Pieces', from "Schindler's List”," she tells­ me. The fact hat she recently per­formed at a gala dinner for none other than John Williams himself is an honor she says she will never forget. "The melody is really haunting and beautiful. It's such a touching story and a touching work that has so much personal meaning to me."

"When you're playing film scores," she continues, "you're playing something that has a story and characters behind it." "If, for instance, you're playing a Brahms concerto, it's really beautiful but there's not a plot behind the music. In ''Three Pieces", there's no question about what I'm trying to portray."

"These are the kind of people who like to go see pop stars. I want to be able to bring them in and get them excited because I think if we don't, it will be hard for orchestras in the future to survive." Today's symphonies, she comments, are competing with loud concerts and fireworks and light shows.

"We don't have all those things," she says, "and so we have to figure out ways to ignite their imaginations and get them to pay attention to us even though we're not running through a bunch of sparkly costume changes or resorting to lots of special effects to convey our message”.

She admires the work of violinists such as Joshua Bell and Leila Josefowicz who bring so much passion to everything they perform. That, in Deutsch's words, "you can't help but be moved by the experience."

She also has nothing but praise for Vener. "I just adore Victor," she says, "because he breaks away from the shackles of what classical music is and turns it into something crazy and fun that always makes people want to keep coming back for more."

That he's willing to try new things and to listen to suggestions from his orchestra members is a bonus in Deutsch's view. "The kind of programs he puts together that involve film and television scores are exactly what I mean about making music appeal to the kind of people who don't normally go and listen to classical music."
"He's just a joy to work with and puts everybody at ease." That's not to say, of course, that Deutsch isn't without butterflies just before performances.

"Being nervous adds to the excitement," she says. "No matter how prepared you are, before you go on, you never know how the audience is going to react to what you do. Will they like it? Will they go to sleep? Will I get out there and totally crash and bum? I think if I weren't nervous, that would be really sad because it would mean that I'd lost that spark of excitement for what I love doing more than anything."

So what does she listen to when she's not practicing? "There are lots of musicians," she replies, "who practice classical pieces all day and then they get in their cars and listen to classical music some more." "I'm not one of those people. I like to listen to a lot of different music because having that exposure to things like pop artists will help me understand what it is I need to know in order to reach out to a broader range of audiences."

I pose the hypothetical question of what three CD's she'd want to have with her if she were going to be stranded on a desert island. "With plenty of food and all the comforts of home?" she wants to know first. I assure her that "roughing it" won't be part of the fictional equation.­ After a moment of contemplation, she decides that one of her choices would be Leila Josefowicz’s Americana CD. "Interestingly, it's not classical. It's a compilation of all kinds of music that appeal to everyone and is really incredible. "Her second choice would be a CD she has counted among her favorites since she was a little girl. "It's Itzhak Perlman's 'Live in Russia'. It's amazing that the copy I have isn't worn out by now for as many times as I've played it."

"Perlman's music was the standard of what I wanted to sound like when I grew up and I still get inspired every time I hear it." Her third CD would be one by Jascha Heifetz. "It's a Gershwin themed CD that's just amazing." Her dream job? "To be performing every single weekend!" she declares. "Music is my life!"

Lindsay is, indeed, a talented artist and musician who performs well beyond the span of her years. She carries herself with poise, ease and elegance - something that carries over to her violin performances on stage.

Had a career in violin not materialized, of course, Deutsch might have answered a calling in sports. In 1997, she won the gold medal in the World Junior Olympic Racquetball Championships and was selected three years later to the U.S. Junior Olympic Team.