Harpist Naomi Sun Finds Community in Orchestra

For many musicians, they find themselves in one of two positions when they begin their career: having been born into a musical family, or picking up an instrument as an extracurricular. Harpist Naomi Sun was the latter.

Both she and her older sister, a violinist, began learning instruments early on in life. Because they were raised in the San Francisco area, the Sun family frequented San Francisco Symphony performances, where Naomi Sun would slowly fall in love with the idea of playing the harp. She picked up harp lessons and soon enough began participating in school ensembles and local competitions.

While involved in school ensembles, Sun found herself playing in the percussion section in addition to playing the harp. Through this, she learned just how different each section of an ensemble is, which helped her realize her passion for bringing people together through the music she played.

“People who play certain instruments, I think, tend to have certain personalities,” said Sun. “I’ve met, like, very much polar opposite types of musicians. And I like to kind of bring it together with my music.”

Sun has also had several lessons teachers over the years who inspired her to become the musician she is today. From Linda Wood Rollo, a musician with more than 15 volumes of harp music and teaching materials to her name, to Douglas Rieth, a former principal harpist for the San Francisco Symphony, and Paula Page, professor at San Francisco State University, Sun has had plenty of guidance through her musical career.

That guidance has paid off, with plenty of competitions won to show for it. In 2022, Sun was named a National YoungArts winner for the second time. She also received the Grand Prize and Ambassador Middendorf Scholarship Award of the United States Navy Band’s Solo Competition in 2019 and placed 3rd in the Intermediate II division of the 2021 American Harp Society’s National Competition, among many other accolades.

In order to prepare herself for competitions like these, Sun must remind herself to not compare her progress and abilities to other auditioners.

“I feel like there’s always a feeling of, like, ‘you could do better.’ I think it’s hard to see your progress step by step and not constantly compare yourself to everyone around you,” said Sun. “...One thing I’ve always done is just kind of sit back and look at how far I’ve gone, and think about how music isn’t just like a competition of winning auditions, or competing with performance. It’s more like who you can reach with your music.”

And now, though Sun is still in the early stages of her music education at Rice University, she’s already looking to the future. Upon graduating from Rice, she intends to enroll at a conservatory for her Master’s degree. After completion of her education, Sun plans to teach students and possibly even pursue professorship at a university in addition to performing in an orchestra.

At the end of the day, regardless of wherever her career takes her, Sun hopes that people are able to be brought together through her music.

“I kind of found my sense of belonging in music, in the orchestra, because I think everyone has an equally important role in the orchestra,” said Sun. “That’s where I found a community and I hope other people can find something similar to that.”