Sunshine Quan

Chinese-Canadian harpist Sunshine Quan started her musical studies on the Chinese zither, but settled on the harp since she picked it up in high school. She currently resides in Rochester, NY, where she attends the Eastman School of Music. An avid orchestral harpist, during her time in Canada she regularly played with orchestras such as Sinfonia Ancaster (Ancaster, ON) and CAST Philomusica (Toronto, ON), and since arriving in Rochester she has been extensively involved in various ensembles at Eastman and the Rochester area. In summer 2022, Sunshine will be playing as Principal Harp with the National Orchestral Institute and Festival (College Park, MD). Her musical journey has brought her across the world, where she gave solo and chamber recitals in North America and China, and toured Spain with the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra. A passionate advocate for new music, Sunshine has composed and arranged for solo harp and harp ensemble and has worked diligently with composers on new works for harp. Sunshine was a 1st prize winner of the scholarship audition at the Toronto Harp Society in 2015. Sunshine graduated from McMaster University (Hamilton, ON) with an Honours Bachelor of Health Sciences degree and Provost’s Honour Roll Medal, specializing in Biomedical Sciences. For nearly 2 years, she worked as a laboratory researcher in the oncology departments at McMaster Children’s Hospital and Juravinski Cancer Center. She completed an ARCT Diploma in Harp Performance with First Class Honours and a National Gold Medal from the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto, ON), and a Master of Music degree in Performance and Literature, Harp Performance at the Eastman School of Music. In fall 2022, she will be continuing into a DMA degree in Harp Performance at Eastman under the generous sponsorship of the Eileen Malone Scholarship. She is forever thankful to her past scientific supervisor Dr. Theodoros Tsakiridis, and her former and current harp teachers Andrew Chan and Professor Kathleen Bride.