MUSIC / CHRIS PASLES : Going Solo Sometimes a Drag on Fast-Track Fiddler

Like many young musicians on the fast track, Anne Akiko Meyers found she wasn’t really prepared for all the rigors of a concert career.

“They should have a course at Juilliard on how to deal with loneliness on the road and all the delays at airports,” the 22-year-old violinist said Monday at her hotel in Costa Mesa.

“It’s just crazy. I never imagined there would be so much more to it than playing a concert. Playing a concert is only 20 to 30% of the battle. It’s everything on the side that gets to you.”

Meyers--whose most recent accolade was the prestigious 1993 Avery Fisher Career Grant of $10,000--will be soloist for Barber’s Violin Concerto with the Pacific Symphony today and Thursday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. Carl St.Clair will conduct.

Meyers’ home is in New York City but with as many concert dates as she’s been playing, she doesn’t get to spend much time there. “Just in and out,” she said. “Time to do my laundry.”

But the tough part is, “I travel alone-- picking up luggage, packing, attending rehearsals, eating dinner alone. Sports people travel with a team and can rely on each other.”

Still, “I just love to get together with a lot of orchestra members, hang out with them, have a beer after a concert. Really, the funnest part of the playing is meeting so many different types of people from all different worlds.”

She’s no stranger to loneliness. Born in San Diego, she started playing violin when she was 4 and at 14, after studying with Eleanor Schoenfeld at the R.D. Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles, left to study with Josef Gingold at Indiana University. She subsequently worked at Juilliard with Dorothy DeLay.

“It was a little difficult mixing with the college kids at Indiana because there was no pre-college division,” Meyers recalled. “With Dorothy, I was much happier because there was a pre-college division, so there were a lot of people my age doing the same kind of thing.”

Meyers said that managers “sort of found” her while she was still a student. “When I was 16, I signed with Young Concert Artists. A year or so later, I signed with ICM. There was a major conflict traveling and taking classes at the same time. It was very difficult. But I didn’t think about it. I just did it.

“You’re given an opportunity. You think, ‘Wow, this is it. I’ll take it.’ But you find out you have to go through a million cycles, a million phases, to really grow and develop and fight and continually struggle with yourself to get better, and to learn from the crazy experience of being on the road.”

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She usually gets only a couple of rehearsals before each concert. “It’s enough,” she said. “At the first rehearsal, you’re sort of reading through the piece; the musicians are checking you out, wondering if you’re really any good. At the second rehearsal, things have settled in. Then you’re ready to play.

“The first concert, maybe there are some balance problems. The second is always better for everybody involved.”

She picked the less well-known Barber concerto because, “I really love it, because it’s just so lyrical. I really like pieces that are not played too much. But there’s difficulty getting those works played by orchestras. I’m always asked to do Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius.”

She said she doesn’t have trouble keeping the war horses fresh, though, because “every performance for me is like a life-and-death situation.”

Meyers plays a 1718 Stradivarius called the Rose, purchased for her use by a private investor. “It’s a really warm-sounding, just beautiful instrument,” she said, asserting that the brand name doesn’t intimidate her. “You get used to handling a $2-million piece of wood.”

After the Costa Mesa date, she’s flying to Portugal and Spain for another series of concerts. “I’m hopeful that after that, I’m going to take a nice vacation. I haven’t really decided what to do. I’m kind of spontaneous about it. I would like to go with someone who could entertain me!”

* Anne Akiko Meyers will be soloist for Barber’s Violin Concerto with the Pacific Symphony today and Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. The program, conducted by Carl St.Clair, also includes works by Copland, John Corigliano and Joan Tower. $13 to $37. (714) 740-2000.