The Oakland Mills home of a renowned violinist got caught in cross-fire Friday night, sending the young Russian musician scrambling to save his beloved instrument, a 1721 Grancino violin.

Emil Chudnovsky, 28, said he was watching television in his first-floor apartment in the 9600 block of White Acre Road after performing at two concerts when he heard a bullet shatter

sliding glass doors.

"It sounded like a firecracker hitting the bottom of a tin barrel," he said yesterday. "I quickly realized that when the glass shattered, anyone could run in and grab my violin."

Chudnovsky took the violin to his agent's house in Columbia.

The bullet, which went through the glass doors and was found on Chudnovsky's bed, entered an area where he usually stands to practice his violin, which his mother brought from Russia and which he has played since he was 7 years old in Moscow.

"If I had been in bed or practicing my violin, it would have struck me in the head or in my left hand," Chudnovsky said.

Chudnovsky has won many international classical music awards and recently launched a group called The Three Violinists, a takeoff on the immensely popular operatic group Three Tenors. He often plays at nursing homes, recitals and community groups in the Baltimore area.

Howard County police said the gunfire began about 10: 20 p.m. between two unidentified men in the 7500 block of Stevens Forest Road. An hour later, a man who told police he was a bystander went to Howard County General Hospital with a gunshot wound to the knee.

Police, who would not provide further information, are investigating.

Pub Date: 11/24/98