Music Saves BSO conductor Xiao-Lu Li performs at youth correctional facility

He has performed throughout the world in many venues, but it’s likely the attention Xiao-Lu Li garnered from an audience last week was like none other.

Li, Bangor Symphony Orchestra music director and conductor, made a guest appearance Jan. 23 at Mountain View Youth Development Center in Charleston, where he performed for about 60 juveniles who are incarcerated at the facility.

There were no hushed conversations, only rapt attention paid by the audience members as the maestro, who also is a motivational speaker, dispensed pointers about life between the violin selections he performed.

Music, like life, has four important requirements: discipline, use of the mind, learning and physical fitness, Li said. Together, they produce success.

“Life is learning from your mistakes,” Li said.

Li told the students that despite the serious offenses they had committed to become incarcerated, the past is the past. Their future, however, is dependent upon how much they are willing to change, to learn, to overcome the mistakes they have made.

If he had a regret, Li said, it is that he got to know the students in his audience too late. Had he met them previously and had an opportunity to share music with them, their journeys may have been different, he said.

That too, was a regret of student Mercedes Cullicutt, 17, who had the rare opportunity Tuesday to accompany Li on the piano during a performance of “Ave Maria.”

“If people like him were in my earlier years, I don’t think I would be where I am right now,” the teenager said.

Cullicutt said she began playing the piano on her own when she was in the fifth grade but in recent years her time on the bench has been intermittent. It was only after her arrival at the center in October that she began to focus on her musical talent.

“I hope one day to be as good on the piano as he is on the violin,” Cullicutt said of Li. She added that she hoped Li would look out over his orchestra one day and see her onstage. By then, Cullicutt said, she would be over her stage fright and would be skilled enough to avoid playing an incorrect note like she did Tuesday.

Cullicutt’s brief mistake prompted Li to embark on a little comedy. “If I make a mistake, I laugh and look at somebody else like she did it,” Li said, which prompted an outburst from his audience.

Li’s visit to the facility this month followed a similar trip he made last year as part of the symphony orchestra’s educational outreach program, which is designed to bring music to young people to help inspire them, according to Susan Jonason, executive director of the symphony.

“He has a real passion for living and he’s a real powerful force,” Jonason said. “He not only brings his musical talent and performs but he brings himself as a person.”

Michael Cushman, music instructor at the youth center and a member of the symphony, said offerings like Li’s show students that there are creative outlets for their time. Many teenagers end up getting into trouble because they don’t have an appropriate leisure-time activity or don’t know how to work with others. Music can fulfill both those needs, he said.

“To have the conductor come is really quite an honor,” Cushman said.

Cullicutt agreed. “When someone takes the time to speak like that it means something,” she said. “They want us to make a difference and want us to be a better individual.”