Few people have a lifetime goal when they are children.

Violinist Rachel Barton, who performs in Escondido Oct. 30 with the San Diego Symphony, is an exception: She has known since early childhood that her future was in music.

"By the time I was 5 years old, I knew I was a violinist. When I had to turn in schoolwork, I signed it, 'Rachel Barton, violinist,' as though it was part of my name."

Barton attributes her interest in the instrument to encounters at her parents' church in Chicago.

"I saw the young women playing violins, and I was fascinated. I loved the sound of the music, and I was attracted to the pretty dresses they wore, so I nagged my parents to let me take lessons when I was 3."

That early start set the standard for her career progression. She performed for an audience at age 5 and made her professional debut when she was 10, performing with the Chicago Symphony, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf. She calls herself fortunate.

"Although I was a child prodigy, my teachers didn't promote me as such. I'm very grateful that they chose to educate me for the long term. And I'm also grateful to my parents. We were poor, so music lessons were a luxury."

Despite this handicap, Barton persisted. She applied and received scholarships for advanced study, always with the possibility that she would be turned down. She also entered and won several prestigious violin competitions. In 1992, she won a gold medal at the Quadrennial J.S. Bach Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany, the first and youngest American awarded this honor. Other top awards came from competitions in Brussels (the Queen Elizabeth), Vienna (the Fritz Kresiler) and Budapest (the Szigeti).

Although this is Barton's first appearance with the San Diego Symphony, Barton is acquainted with the area.

"I played in San Diego two years ago as part of a National Public Radio Conference. It was just a taste but enough to make me eager to return."

Barton also has a North County connection. Each summer, she is a performing instructor at the Nashville Fiddle Camp, founded and directed by violinist/composer Mark O'Connor of Bonsall.

"Mark heard me play at the concert for the Chicago Bulls, and he knew about my outreach projects. The fiddle camp and his strings workshop in San Diego are unique. The artists specialize in so many violin styles -- fiddle, classical, folk, jazz -- that the teachers learn from each other. And it's especially fun playing duel recitals with Mark. I'll play a Paganini piece, and he'll respond with jazz. Or I'll play something from Led Zeppelin, and he'll play a folk tune."

Barton performs year-round.

"I don't know how many concerts and recitals I play each year. That's an empty statistic. I do know I'm gone more than I am at home. I'm booked at least two weekends every month, and I love it. I enjoy the lifestyle, the traveling. Every trip is a new adventure, and I'm strongly motivated to serve audiences wherever."

She is also constantly learning new music.

"Not concertos, at least not often. I already know so many. At least 80. I haven't played them all with an orchestra. But when I'm asked to play a different piece, I learn it. I try to learn a lot of unaccompanied pieces and to revive the work of little-known composers, such as Joseph Joachim. He was a contemporary and a close friend of Brahms. On my most recent CD, I recorded a concerto by each of them."

During her Escondido appearance with the symphony, Barton will perform Mozart's Concerto No. 3 for violin and orchestra in G major, with which she is familiar. "Although I've played at countless times, I always enjoy doing it," she said. "Every time I go back to it, I discover new aspects to the composition, and it's like new."

The symphony program opens with "Overture to La scala di seta" ("The Silken Staircase"). The closing work is Anton Bruckner's Symphony in E-flat major.

Yoav Talmi, former director/conductor of the San Diego Symphony, returns to conduct this weekend's series of concerts (including performances Friday through Sunday in San Diego). Talmi is now working on both sides of the Atlantic, as music director of the Quebec Symphony and of Germany's Hamburg

Symphony, and is regularly invited to guest-conduct major orchestras in North America, Europe and Asia.

Barton said she enjoys working with living composers, "particularly on unaccompanied pieces. And they aren't all classical composers. I also perform music by Led Zeppelin and Guns 'N Roses. I also write my own music. I composed the cadenza I will play with the Mozart concerto in Escondido. And I am teaching a master class, which I try to do in every town where I perform. I feel it's my mission to bring music to as many people as possible."

Barton said she has no favorite composition.

"My favorite is always whatever I'm playing."

But when asked to name her most memorable performance, she didn't hesitate.

"Playing the national anthem for the Chicago Bulls' championship game. There was a crowd of 25,000 people. I've never felt such energy, and I was playing for people who had never attended a concert. It was great. And I got to meet Michael Jordan.

"As long as I can do such things, I'll never retire. I want to go on playing concerts and recitals, teaching master classes, working with children. It's a fun thing being a musician, and I want to keep on doing it as long as I can."

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To boost ticket sales, which have been hurt by the wildfires in North County this past week, the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, has halved ticket prices for tonight's performance. Tickets are now available for $15 to $25, a substantial savings from the $20 to $80 ticket prices for identical performances at Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego this weekend.

San Diego Symphony

When: 8 p.m. Oct. 30 (free pre-concert lecture at 7:15 p.m.)

Where: California Center for the Arts, Escondido, 340 Escondido Blvd., Escondido

Tickets: $15-$25

Information: (800) 988-5423

When: 8 p.m. Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 (free pre-concert lecture at 7:15 p.m.); 2 p.m. Nov. 2

Where: Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., San Diego

Tickets: $20-$80

Info: (619) 235-0804