10-YEAR-OLD PRODIGY TAKES CENTER STAGE WITH A BOW

In Robert Lipsett’s studio, 10-year-old Leila Josefowicz warms her bow across the strings of her violin as her teacher lays out the score of “Round of the Goblins.” Leila attacks the piece, scattering notes down the violin’s finger board and into each corner of the studio.

“Sometimes you let your fourth finger up before you put your third finger down,” Lipsett says. “I know that’s hard.”

He rearranges the little fingers. “It’s a tremendous stretch--but don’t--that’s it! Watch your little finger there, don’t let it coil. Hand getting tired?”

Leila shakes the ache from her fingers and goes back for more. She smiles shyly and plants herself in position. With violin snugly tucked in and bow raised, her little-girl demeanor vanishes.

“Right away--beautiful tone. Yeaaa daaaa . . . lean into the second beat,” Lipsett continues. Leila rips through the impossible mix of notes, leaving a light dusting of rosin beneath the strings.

The supersonic “Round of the Goblins,” a virtuoso showpiece for the violin, is a type of aerobic finger torture for child prodigy Leila Josefowicz.

“It seems like I go faster and faster and can’t stop,” she says.

Since picking up the violin at age 3, Josefowicz has performed solos at the Hollywood Bowl, the Redlands Bowl Festival Symphony, the San Fernando Valley Symphony and the Pacific Symphony. She recently appeared in the nationally televised opening, attended by President and Mrs. Reagan, of the Bob Hope Cultural Center in Palm Desert and at a benefit honoring composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein called “Bravo Bernstein!”

Achieving a blend of technical expertise, expression, concentration and discipline is often a game of roulette for serious violinists. But Leila has it all, according to Endre Granat, concertmaster for the Pacific Symphony. “She has an absolutely extraordinary combination of talent,” he said. “She has the inner fire. She’s one in a million.”

Lipsett said it was Leila’s “astonishing ear” that impressed him when he began instructing her two years ago. “Her ability to place her finger to the absolute center of pitch is remarkable--very unusual,” Lipsett said. “I’m not sure that I realize the full extent of her gifts, because they keep unfolding as she develops.”

Jack Josefowicz discovered his daughter’s acute hearing five years ago while vacuuming the floor. She was beginning to read music, having completed two years of the Suzuki method of violin, taught by ear.

“Out of the blue she said, ‘Daddy, that’s F sharp!’ ” Josefowicz remembers. “I said, ‘What’s F sharp?’ and she said, ‘The vacuum!’ ” Josefowicz said he later tested his daughter by playing on the piano random notes that she identified perfectly.

Leila was born in Toronto to Josefowicz, a physicist, and his wife, Wendy, a former biologist. The couple also have a son, Steven, 7. The two children attend Westlake Elementary, near their Westlake Village home.

Instructs 20

Lipsett, 39, instructs 20 gifted violinists at his Northridge home. He also teaches violin at USC and at the Community School for the Performing Arts, which awarded Leila its first Ahmanson Foundation Scholarship last year. Leila attends Encore School for Strings in Ohio during the summer and is a scholar of the Young Musicians Foundation, an organization that provides funds to gifted young musicians.

“He’s nice,” Leila said of her teacher. “He doesn’t yell, even when he has bad days. Sometimes he makes jokes. One time I played slow, and I put accents on the wrong notes, and he said he was getting an upset stomach.”

Leila clocks up to four hours of practice each day, often beginning at 6 a.m. “But sometimes I have ‘those days,’ ” she said. “It helps when I think that every time you work you’re going to get better.”

Concertmaster Granat believes Leila will bypass the treacherous path of exploitation that often confronts child prodigies. “She will have her ups and downs,” Granat said. “But I don’t think she’s facing exploitation.”

With the help of Lipsett and her parents, Leila has avoided the bad habits that stymied such virtuosos as Yehudi Menuhin, Granat said. Menuhin had to painfully retool his battering-ram technique, which he used as a child to plow through technical challenges. Lipsett said Josefowicz was free of bad habits when he began teaching her, having completed the exhaustive eight-book Suzuki method in previous instruction from two competent teachers.

April will be one of Leila’s busiest months: She will tape a violin solo for the Smothers Brothers television show, perform at the Bob Hope Cultural Center for the American Friends of the Hebrew University, tape an “Hour of Power” program at the Crystal Cathedral and appear in “Hollywood Honors the Kennedy Center Honorees” at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Leila’s parents said they try to maintain a balance in their daughter’s life by keeping it as normal as possible. A rounded education is critical, Jack Josefowicz said, adding that he and his wife also encourage their daughter’s social life.

Both parents attend their daughter’s weekly lessons and take notes of Lipsett’s directives for further study at home.

“That’s been a remarkable situation,” Lipsett said. “Her father is a natural teacher and happens to love the violin. Virtually all great violinists had someone in their home that was practicing with them.”

Josefowicz, who studied the classical guitar for 10 years, took up the violin along with his daughter, staying a bit ahead of her for the first two years. He spends an hour after dinner practicing with her and is up at 6 a.m. suggesting an exercise or concerto to begin the day.

‘We Have Jokes’

“We’re not serious all the time,” his daughter said. “We have jokes, and we get to fool around.” Leila tackles almost all subjects with intensity, her mother said. “She’s an amazing tetherball player. She wipes her father out. We had Mr. Lipsett out here to play, and he’s a big, tall guy. She really put him to the test.”

Both Leila and her brother enjoy reading and listening to music. The television set was removed nine years ago. They said a favorite recording is one of violinist Itzhak Perlman playing Scott Joplin ragtime pieces.

But rock ‘n’ roll is “mostly crashing and it’s not very interesting,” Leila said. “It repeats so much, and it just gets boring after a while. Plus everyone is screaming and yelling, and they give you a headache.”

Though the rigorous life of a solo violinist might seem unnatural for a 10-year-old, Lipsett said Leila’s strong artistic ego enables her to appear before thousands without great strain.

“You’ve got to, down to your bones, believe that you are good,” he said. “She knows she can do it, there’s no doubt in her mind.”

Granat said he noticed Leila’s mature demeanor when she played for the Pacific Symphony last year. “She comes out on stage, sticks her feet in the ground, and she’s the Rock of Gibraltar,” he said. “She was born to do what she’s doing now. There’s no doubt about that.”

But Leila doesn’t think in terms of artistic egos. She said it’s cheeseburgers that do the trick.

“They give me extra energy,” she said, adding that she enjoys having finished a performance. “I feel glad ‘cause I worked hard, and I get to relax.”