YOUNG WOODLAND HILLS CELLIST FOLLOWS HER MUSE.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer

BRONWYN BANERDT began playing cello at an age when most of her peers were learning their ABCs.

By age 6, she was playing at the orchestra level and began competing against other child prodigies across the country. Now 17, Banerdt took grand prize at the Bronislaw Kaper Awards last year before shipping off to Itzhak Perlman's summer Perlman Music Program.

A part of her prize was the opportunity to play with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which the Woodland Hills resident will do under the direction of Miguel Harth-Bedoya on Saturday.

Banerdt will be the featured soloist in a free neighborhood concert at East L.A. College. She performs Bruch's ``Kol Nidre for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 47.''

The chance to perform in front of the orchestra has been a dream of Banerdt's for as long as she has played cello.

``Nobody ever told me, 'Bronwyn, you have to be a musician.' '' she said. ``It's just something that I decided to do at a young age.''

Banerdt remembers when, as a toddler, she tinkered with instruments such as the violin. Her parents, both of whom studied music, allowed her to pick out her first real instrument at age 4. She chose the cello.

Around the same time, Banerdt started attending L.A. Philharmonic concerts with her family. She watched as young musicians played concertos with the orchestra and dreamed that someday she would be one of them.

``Music is so different from other fields because you train seriously from the time you're 5 or 6 years old,'' she said. ``From that time forward, it's not that you can't do anything else, because I've done a lot of other things. I was really involved in school, and I've been a dancer. It's just that it's such a big part of you.''

Banerdt, who is now a junior in the music department at USC, has questioned whether she wouldn't be happier becoming an astronaut, doctor or politician rather than a musician.

``How can you tell when you're 5 years old what a certain career is going to be like?'' she said. Then it hit her during a music festival in Florida. ``It's just what I do. It's what I've always done and I love doing it.''

BRONWYN BANERDT AND THE LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC WITH CONDUCTOR MIGUEL HARTH-BEDOYA

Where: East Los Angeles College's Edison Center for the Performing Arts, Ingalls Auditorium, 1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez, Monterey Park 

When: 4 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets: Admission is free, but tickets are required. Call [phone] or [phone].

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Photo:

Bronwyn Banerdt, 17, will perform with the L.A. Philharmonic on Saturday.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer