SUN Yifan is the first prize winner of the 10^th International Conducting Competition Jeunesses Musicales Bucharest, 1^st prize winner of the piano section of the 5^th Asian Youth Music Competition (Senior Group), China National Scholarship and Germany National Scholarship winner. In 2022 SUN was listed as one of the Ten Leading Chinese Young Conductors, selected jointly by various sate level culture & arts institutions in China.

In July 2020, SUN conducted Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra as his debut in an orchestra’s season subscription concert, which drew much attention from the music industry in China. Recommended by maestro YU Long, ZHANG Guoyong and YI Huang, in the year of 2020 alone SUN has successively conducted the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra and Kunming Nie Er Symphony Orchestra, and has won widespread praise. In December 2020, on celebrating the 40^th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, SUN and the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra gave the premiere performance of Qianhai and Ode to Shenzhen, written by composers ZHOU Xianglin and WANG Ning. At the end of December, SUN conducted Xi'an Symphony Orchestra’s New Year’s gala concert, with the leading soprano ZHANG Liping as featuring artist. In April 2021, he was invited to conduct the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra as replacement of maestro Laurence Foster. In the same year he conducted Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra’s Children's Day Concert, which was warmly received. In June 2021 he was invited by Shanghai Symphony Orchestra as one of the four young generation conductors to conduct the orchestra in serial concerts. January 2022 sees SUN’s return to Shanghai Symphony Orchestra again for a season subscription concert.

In July 2022 under recommendation from YU Long, SUN Yifan has conducted Shanghai Symphony Orchestra for the world premiere of the tone poem A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains by Zhao Lin, which is co-commissioned by 23 orchestras in China. Also in the year of 2022, Yifan has been invited by Shanghai Symphony for another three concerts, including two concerts as substitute for MaestroYU Long.

In the season of 22/23 sees SUN’s career established as the leading conductor in China of his generation, this season alone he has been invited as guest conductors for all the major orchestras in China, including China Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony for the orchestra’s tour in China over the new year 22/23, China National Symphony, Guangzhou Symphony, Hangzhou Philharmonic, Guiyang Symphony, Xi’an Symphony for the New Year’s Eve concert, Qingdao Symphony, to name a few, as well as several subscription concerts with the NCPA Orchestra where he works as Assistant Conductor to Maestro LÜ Jia.

In January 2021, at the invitation of music director LÜ Jia, SUN made his debut with China NCPA Orchestra with huge success, which immediately brought him invitation back to the China NCPA Orchestra in October 2021 for another season subscription concert with which success leads him the nomination of Assistant Conductor of the China NCPA Orchestra, effective from 2022.

SUN has worked with various leading soloists and vocalists including the violinists HUANG Bin, NING Feng, soprano ZHANG Liping and pianists Zee Zee, SUN Yingdi and CHEN Sa.

SUN Yifan was born in 1994. As a piano major, he got accepted to the primary school affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with the highest score in 2005 and later on to the middle school affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music without examination, studying under the famous pianist and educator LI Minduo. In 2014, he was admitted into the Shanghai Conservatory of Music as a first-place freshman of the conducting major, studying under renowned conductors and educators ZHANG Guoyong and LIN Daye successively. At the same time, SUN continued his piano studies under the famous pianist and educator LI Jian, and obtained double bachelor's degree of Conducting and Piano with honours. At school, he was selected to participate in master classes with Joma Panula, John Nelson, Thomas Sanderling, Ronald Zollman, and was well praised by all. In addition, he was also the long-time music assistant of the celebrated composer and conductor TAN Dun, responsible for the Martial Arts Trilogy, Water Heavens and many other projects.

China NCPA Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Beijing. Since its founding in 2010, the orchestra has fast established itself as one of the most adventurous and dynamic orchestras in the country and earned an international reputation through extensive performances abroad.

Artists associated with the orchestra include Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, Myung-Whun Chung, Fabio Luisi, Christoph Eschenbach, Shao-Chia Lü, ZHANG Xian, Rudolf Buchbinder, Lang Lang, Stephen Kovacevich, Yuja Wang, WANG Jian, Gautier Capucon, Kyung Wha Chung, Vadim Repin, Placido Domingo, Renee Fleming, and Leo Nucci among many others. Lorin Maazel worked closely with the orchestra before his passing and praised the musicians for their “amazing professionalism and great passion in music”.

The orchestra has gained critical acclaim for its performances in NCPA’s opera productions of not only classical repertoire such as Tristan and Isolde, Der Rosenkavalier, Tosca and Aida, but also newly commissioned works like The Rickshaw Boy, The Long March, and The Jinsha River. In its own orchestral concert season, it has consistently presented creative and diverse programmes. The orchestra also gave the Chinese premieres of works by Toru Takemitsu, et al, commissioned and world premiered many works by Michael Gordon, Augusta Read Thomas, CHEN Qigang, and ZHAO Jiping et al. Their performance of The Ring without Words with its creator, Lorin Maazel, was released on SONY Classics worldwide. In 2019, the orchestra’s recording of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 was awarded "Best Orchestral Album" at the 2018 Chinese Audiophile Vinyl Award. In 2021, the NCPAO released Beethoven’s Egmont, becoming the first Chinese orchestra to record this masterpiece. In celebration of the tenth anniversary of its Music Director LÜ Jia’s ongoing tenure, the orchestra released two albums in 2022, including Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 and a selection of live recordings conducted by LÜ Jia. In July 2023, the NCPAO released the recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3.

Alongside its concert series, the orchestra has received widespread praise for its international appearances at the Kissingen Summer Music Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and concerts in many cities in Germany, as well as in Sydney, Singapore, Seoul, Daegu, Abu Dhabi, Taipei and Macau. In 2014, the orchestra undertook its first North American tour and returned in 2017, where it performed at Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, Davies Symphony Hall and other major venues in the US and Canada, under the baton of LÜ Jia. Musical America praised its “joyful confidence and youthful strength”. Concerto Net described it as “a polished, first rate ensemble”. April 2021 saw the orchestra complete their first six-city domestic tour, which Music Weekly praised as "a series of sophisticated programs in concerts that blew the roof off,” followed by a second tour in March 2023.