BIOGRAPHY

Kevin Lee Sun performs a rarely heard, diverse piano repertoire that evokes empathy in listeners and relates to current society.

With “probing seriousness” (Performing Arts Monterey Bay) and “a stunningly beautiful palette of colors” (Peninsula Reviews), Sun interprets music old and new. In 2011, Sun won the Silver Medal at the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition in California for his performances of the classical canon. In 2021, for his visionary programming of 20th-century music, he was the sole pianist to be named Finalist of the Berlin Prize for Young Artists in Germany.

These honors have led Sun to perform a diverse repertoire around the world, including at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Arnold Schoenberg Center in Vienna, the Villa Elisabeth in Berlin, and the Banff Centre in Canada. Masterworks for solo piano that Sun has performed in recital include Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy, Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Rzewski's The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, and Hyo-shin Na’s Rain Study.

Following Sun’s political album THE PEOPLE UNITED and spiritual recital program THE ESSENCE OF THE SOUL comes Sun’s 2025-26 project, SEA WIND. In response to inhumane immigration policies, world trade wars, and overall trends towards isolationism, SEA WIND reflects on exploitation, loneliness, and the evocation of connection. Music by living composers—including Hyo-shin Na’s Sea Wind, and the world premieres of works by Daniel De Togni and Colin Kemper that Sun commissioned—anchor the season’s recital programming. Combining these pieces with classical works by Domenico Scarlatti, Franz Schubert, and Stefan Wolpe, Sun makes clear that there is no stopping the migration of people, the exchange of ideas, and the wind that blows across the sea.

Sun balances his performance career with a strong devotion to teaching, and his piano students have achieved numerous successes. In his first two years in Pittsburgh, three of his students have already won the Pittsburgh Concert Society auditions and appeared as recitalists. An active member of MTNA, Sun's students have won first at the 2024 Pennsylvania State MTNA performance competition and runner-up at the 2022 New York State Music Teachers Association state competition. They have performed as soloists with orchestras: the University of Rochester Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, as well as the Duquesne University Chamber Orchestra. They also have been accepted to summer piano festivals such as the Gijón Festival in Spain, the Amalfi Coast Festival in Italy, and Pianofest in the Hamptons, as well as to graduate school programs in various disciplines. Besides working with his own students, Sun has taught masterclasses around the United States, including at Stanford University, Baylor University, and William Paterson University, and he frequently serves on competition juries.

Setting Sun apart from other classical pianists is his research acumen. Sun earned his B.A.S. in biology and classics at Stanford University, then his M.M. in piano at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he served as Piano Department Assistant. In the subsequent three years, he was a Stanford Medical School student. Three years after that, he earned his D.M.A. at the Eastman School of Music. With his diverse educational background, Sun has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles of original research in the fields of psychiatry, student mentorship, and Platonic philosophy.

Throughout his life, Sun has been proud to teach and learn from LGBTQ+ community members, neurodivergent transition-age youth, and English language learners. He has advocated for these students annually in national conference presentations for the College Music Society, the Music Teachers National Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation.

A native of Sacramento, California, Sun began his piano studies in Sacramento with Sylvia and Tien Hsieh, who fostered his musical talent. He later studied with Lorna Peters at Sacramento State, Sharon Mann at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Alexander Kobrin at the Eastman School of Music, and Thomas Schultz at Stanford University. Especially influential were Sun’s studies with Schultz, who worked with such important composers as Frederic Rzewski, Christian Wolff, and Hyo-shin Na in commissioning and premiering their works.

Sun is Assistant Professor of Piano and Artistic Director of the City Music Center at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

CONTACT
klsun@icloud.com