Into the ring

Sun learned to play the piano at the age of 6. His parents work at Zhengzhou University — his mother teaches Western philosophy and his father teaches quantum physics — and supported their son's music dream.

In 2005, Sun was enrolled to study at the primary school affiliated to Shanghai Conservatory of Music and later the middle school affiliated to the same conservatory.

It was veteran conductor Zhang Guoyong's conducting classes that inspired Sun to become a conductor.

"I was a middle school student back then when I attended Zhang's conducting classes. He talked about the conductor's mission, logic, and role in an orchestra, which broadened my vision on classical music," says Sun, who later studied under Zhang at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 2014, where he gained his bachelor's degree in conducting and piano performance four years later.

He was the first prize winner of the 10th International Conducting Competition Jeunesses Musicales Bucharest in 2019. The same year, he went to study at Hochschule fur Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin in Germany, where he gained his master's degree. He has been working as assistant conductor at the China NCPA Orchestra — the resident orchestra of the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing — since 2022.

"There are many young talented Chinese conductors receiving attention thanks to the opportunities we have been offered by established conductors and professional symphony orchestras. I am very grateful," says Sun.

"The relationship between the conductor and the symphony orchestra is very different from what it was in the past, when conductors were seen as leaders, or let's say the 'big boss'," Sun adds. "Now, conductors lead and guide but it's also important for conductors to work with the orchestras and musicians. We listen, communicate and learn from each other. The ultimate goal is to present a great concert."

Now, he is preparing for a performance of the Giuseppe Verdi opera La Traviata by the NCPA, in which he is once again working as the assistant conductor for Yu.