San Diego Youth Symphony concertmaster Flora Li. Photo: Nancee E. Lewis
Harvard-bound Flora Li at home as concertmaster of the San Diego Youth Symphony
Flora Li figures she must be getting somewhere on the violin.
She’s concertmaster of the San Diego Youth Symphony, which performs a free “send-off” concert June 18 at Balboa Park’s Plaza de Panama before embarking on a tour of China on June 23.
And she’s won numerous competitions and awards and recently attended the National Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute in Washington, D.C., where she performed at the Kennedy Center.
But what may have marked Li’s progress more than anything is a comment from her mother.
“I remember my mom saying recently, ‘Your music is starting to make me cry,’?” said Li, who just graduated from Del Norte High School.
Those are undoubtedly tears of joy, as Li, 17, is an individual with seemingly limitless possibility.
In addition to her musical pursuits, which include being a mentor in the Youth Symphony’s Community Opus Project and frequently performing in senior centers, she is vice president and one of the founders of Del Norte’s Mock Trial Team.
She also participates in the Science Olympiad and the Academic League.
And she tutors other students at the Del Norte Writing Help and Tutoring Center while maintaining straight A’s in her classes.
How does Li negotiate all those activities?
“Everything I do, I love, so it’s not really difficult to transition between things,” she said. “I guess I use knowledge that I’ve learned in every subject to apply to other subjects.”
For example?
“From the violin I’ve learned a lot about work ethic, because there’s always a limited amount of time to practice, and you want to make the most out of the time you do practice,” she said. “You learn how to manage time and what parts you should focus on.”
Her position as concertmaster has also taught her about both leadership and collaboration, and how to handle pressure, a lesson she applies in other areas of her life.
“It’s more pressure on myself to do well, rather than external pressure,” she said, “because I feel I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I just slacked off. It’s not necessarily about getting the A’s. It’s more I did what I wanted to do, I did the best that I could do.”
She’ll be a freshman at Harvard University next year, and although she hasn’t declared a major, she’s expecting she will focus on law, or a double major that would include music.
Arguing comes naturally to her, as does speaking her mind, she says, and she’s determined to put those qualities to good use.
“I was a very rebellious preteen,” she said. “It’s just part of my personality. I don’t try to sugarcoat things a lot. That’s just who I am, I guess. People will come to me if they want an honest opinion.”
She’s even unafraid to be blunt with herself, and records herself so she can better analyze her playing.
“As I’ve grown older, I’ve found a lot more of the passion I feel for the music goes into my playing,” she said. “It’s gotten a lot better.”
So good, it may make you cry.
