Playing Hearts and Strings : Music: Violinists gather for the Old Time Amateur Fiddle Contest. The youngest performers steal the show.

Kevin Hoekendorf strode onto the stage Sunday wearing a big cowboy hat and holding a violin so small it looked like a toy.

After the audience grew quiet at the Oak View Community Center, the 7-year-old Camarillo boy fiddled through a waltz and a couple of hoedowns--the kind of music that gets feet stomping and hands clapping.

Kevin walked off with a first-place trophy in the Pee Wee Division of the Old Time Amateur Fiddle Contest. Nothing to it.

“When he was 4, he started talking about playing the violin,” Kevin’s mother, Cathy Hoekendorf, said with a broad smile. So she enrolled her son in lessons.

“It gives him a lot of confidence to get up there,” she said.

And he’ll be back next year.

Every year for the past six years, dozens of children, teen-agers and adults have competed in the contest, sponsored by the California State Old Time Fiddlers Assn., District 8.

Sunday was no different. Nearly 30 youngsters and 18 adults turned out for the event.

Although full-grown fiddlers wowed the audience with classic ditties, the children won their hearts.

“Who wants to follow a kid act?” said Rae Huffman, one of the event’s organizers. “The kids just stole the show.”

It was little Christy Lee Custer’s first time on stage. The 6-year-old Thousand Oaks girl won the youngest-fiddler award.

“Last year we just came to listen,” said Christy Lee’s mother, Sharon Custer. “She liked it so much she wanted to play. We started her in lessons five months ago.”

Last year, Benjamin Chiang, 6, of Oxnard took the youngest-participant honors. This year he claimed the second-place Pee Wee trophy.

When asked what he likes about playing the violin, Benjamin blushed and shrugged.

“It’s fun,” he said.

But practice can be tedious.

“I’d rather be fooling around the house,” said Sameer Sharma, 9, who took third place in the Junior Junior Division for children 9 through 12. “But I like playing in the contests. . . . I like to win.”

All contestants were expected to play three selections Sunday, including a waltz, a hoedown and a tune of their choice--all within a four-minute limit. The favorites among the children included “The Happy Farmer,” “Bile Them Cabbages Down” and “Chicken Reel.”

Camarillo violin teacher Charl Ann Gastineau, who had 23 students 6 through 17 in the contest, said she urged them to write their own waltzes. Once they know the basics, Gastineau said, creating their own music is simple.

She said her young students study violin in the Suzuki method, which involves a daily lesson at home from a parent and weekly sessions with the teacher, which the child and parent attend. The child trains his or her ear by listening to tapes of musical selections over and over, she said. Later, the child learns to read music.

Gastineau said the method is similar to the way children learn language, hearing it all the time and repeating it.

Cathy Hoekendorf said lessons for Kevin cost about $80 a month, but she said it’s worth the money.

“He really likes it,” she said.

Her husband, Kurt, added: “If you start kids in music when they are young, the better off they are.

“There are kids who are not good in sports. Music gives them another outlet.”

Times correspondent Robyn Loewenthal contributed to this story.

The Winners Are . . .

Here are the first-place winners in the Old Time Amateur Fiddle Contest, provided by event organizer Rae Huffman: Ladies’ Division: Katherine Croshier, Los Angeles Men’s Division: Bill Scruggs, Fillmore Seniors’ Division: Selmer Peterson, Norwalk Twin Fiddle Division: Linda Simpson and Jess Hargus, Bakersfield Guitar Accompanist Division: Ches Willis, Ventura Youngest Fiddler: Christy Lee Custer, 6, Thousand Oaks Oldest Fiddler: Otis Chamberlain, 88, Ventura Pee Wee Division: Kevin Hoekendorf, Camarillo Junior Junior Division: Larissa Brantner, Ventura Junior Division: Saarika Sharma, Camarillo