WORCESTER, Mass. - An 11-year-old cellist from Worcester is preparing to show off her skills in a national competition.

Sofia Hernandez-Williams has spent more than half of her young life pursuing a dream.

“I've always really wanted to become a professional cellist," Hernandez-Williams said. "I have been playing for around six years. You still get to have opportunities to play lots of melodies and solos, but then you also get to accompany others.”

The 11-year-old from Worcester said playing the cello just feels right.

“Both my parents played string instruments, and I really wanted to play a string instrument," Hernandez-Williams said. "It's like the bass is too low, the violin was too high, the viola just didn't seem right, and the cello was just like, right there in the middle.”

“She loves to practice, which isn't always the case, but we just we just go with it," Caroline Reiner-Williams said. "And sometimes we have to tell her to stop, which is kind of cool, but she's very much a kid, and she takes her stuffed rabbit with her everywhere and has a lot of fun with what she's doing as well.”

Hernandez-Williams takes lessons at Worcester’s Joy of Music Program with her mom’s former teacher and she’s a student at Boston's Project Step where she plays chamber music on the weekends.

She’s getting ready to compete in the semi-finals of a national competition next week.

“Now we get we get to go over to Detroit for like a week; it’s amazing," Hernandez-Williams said. "I think it's all about the experience really. And just being able to go there is an honor basically.”

While Hernandez-Williams is looking forward to the opportunities the Sphinx Competition will bring, her mom, Reiner-Williams said music helps open doors.

“Music informs, I think, many different parts of life and can help prepare these kids for a career in whatever their chosen field is," Reiner-Williams said. "But certainly, Project Step and JOMP have done so much for Sophie, exposing her to professional musicians in our area, concert opportunities and also the fellow students who she works with at a very high level. So, we're really blessed in that regard.”

And the young cellist said, no matter how long you’ve been playing an instrument, there’s still a lot to learn.

“There's much more repertoire and things for me to play," Hernandez-Williams said. "And of course, it's with every instrument. But you can play an instrument and still be able to still just discover more.”