For her first recording, the violinist Alana Youssefian returns to the New Jersey church of her childhood | Kevin Riordan

The sanctuary at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church “is where it all started for me," says the violinist Alana Youssefian.

“Every year when I was growing up, I did recitals at St. Rose," she recalls. “I learned a lot there."

So when a producer suggested it was time for the 26-year-old Juilliard graduate to make her professional recording debut, the idea of using the Haddon Heights church of her childhood came to mind.

“It’s a beautiful space where I feel comfortable,” says Youssefian, who lives in Manhattan. “I thought it would be nice to bring this Jersey girl home for this big thing.”

Youssefian and her informal ensemble, called Le Bien-Aimé (“The Beloved”) — violinist Stephen Goist, cellist Matt Zucker, and harpsichordist Michael Sponseller — plan to record three sonatas and three symphonies by Louis-Gabriel Guillemain. None of the baroque pieces by the 18th-century French composer and violinist she has selected have been recorded before.

The three-day, 18-hour session began at noon Monday. The album will be titled Brillance Indéniable: The Virtuoso Violin in the Court of Louis XV, and will be available as a CD and at online streaming platforms. Youssefian and her ensemble also plan to perform a free concert of the music from the album at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at St. Rose.

I caught up with the members of this collegial group as they warmed up at St. Rose on Monday. “The space is really good for this type of music,” producer David Bowles said, adding, however, that traffic noise — and Monday’s bellowing winds — might necessitate recording some passages in the evening.

A CD “is a calling card for a young performer,” Bowles, whose production company is in Berkeley, Calif, said. “You have to make a product. People like to hold something in their hand.”

Educated at Oberlin Conservatory, Rice University, and Juilliard, Youssefian is her own manager, and has begun an active performing career. She has a sleek website (alanayoussefian.com) and a YouTube presence, is active on social media, and was able to raise just over $8,000 on Kickstarter to make the recording possible.

She and the members of her ensemble are all friends and fellow freelancers; a little family of highly trained and ambitious musicians for hire who have each other’s backs.

“Alana has a gift for bringing people together musically, and in a personal way,” said Goist, 28, of New York City. “She’s a great friend and a great musician.”

With her contagious smile and vivid personal style, Youssefian — whose official bio describes her as a Rolling Stones fan — makes a memorable impression.

“There’s an expressiveness when she plays,” her mother, Ellen, says, accurately.

Youssefian began taking violin lessons at age 4 and sang as a child in the choir at St. Rose. Her mother is a pianist and an adjunct professor of music at Temple University; her father, Jirair, is an architect who played drums and guitar in a rock band in his native Iran; and her older brother, Alex, is a violinist and music teacher in the Philadelphia public schools.

“Music is a career than can fill your soul, and I am glad that Alana is trying to make a living doing something she loves,” said Ellen, who describes her daughter as a “classical and edgy” performer.

Youssefian explained her keen interest in Western music’s baroque period (1600 to 1750) by comparing this once “underground,” now increasingly mainstream, genre to jazz.

“What’s on the page is where to start,” she said. “Playing baroque music is different from regular playing. You use your body differently."

The violinist said she also enjoys doing deep research into a composer’s work — a task facilitated by the wealth of material available online — to inform and enrich a performance.

“This extra element of discovery is something I like,” she said. “You need this sort of connection to the music in order to bring it alive ... to make it jump off the page a little higher.”

Youssefian said she sees her debut recording as “this tangible thing I’ll have 20 years from now of something I did with an amazing group of friends at this stage of my career.”

After our conversation, she joined her fellow professionals in the front of the sanctuary, beneath the microphones and in the lovely light of the stained-glass windows.

“Shall we get started?” Youssefian asked.

And with that, the music began.