Pianist Sunny Qu was born in Qingdao, China and later raised in Vancouver, Canada. Sunny began piano lessons at an early age, and has met with success and recognition in competitions and festivals since his teenage years. Since then he has performed on three continents in such venues as the Weiner Salle in Salzburg, Austria, Duke’s Hall in London, England, and the Chan Centre in his native Vancouver, as well as being invited to perform in the Russian Embassy of Osaka, Japan on a special occasion.
Sunny was the third prize winner of the 2009 Knigge Competition, as well as a past winner of the UBC Concerto Competition. He has subsequently performed with the UBC Symphony Orchestra, as well as the West Coast Symphony Orchestra. In recent seasons, Sunny has appeared as soloist with the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto no. 3 and with the BC Symphony Orchestra in Mozart’s Double Piano Concerto alongside his teacher, Sara Davis Buechner. He was also invited to perform as soloist in the west coast premier of Charles Hansen’s Adagio for Piano and Orchestra with the Bellflower Symphony. Sunny was the recipient of the Johann Strauss Foundation Award in 2009, and the Else Cross Brahms Prize from the Royal Academy of Music in London, England in 2013.
In 2017, Sunny was invited to join the Global Outstanding Chinese Artist Association as the organization’s ambassador in North America. In this role he has served on the jury of the GOCAA International Piano Competition in 2017 and 2018, as well as given masterclasses at the 2018 GOCAA Summer Academy held at California State University Northridge.
Sunny was a graduate of the UBC School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Sara Davis Buechner and Hamish Milne. He then continued his studies with pianist and conductor Jeffrey Kahane at the University of Southern California. His past teachers include renowned pedagogue Edward Parker and concert pianist Ian Parker. He was also fortunate to receive guidance during his studies from such artists as Anton Kuerti, Robert Levin, Joanna MacGregor, Pascal Devoyon, and Steven Osborne.