Connecting Worlds: Qiubo Sun's Journey Through Children's Voices and Global Stages
Leonard Bernstein once said that “music can name the unnamable and communicate the unknowable.” For Qiubo Sun, that belief is the throughline of her journey from Shanghai to the United States, where she builds bridges between cultures through music and education.
Sun joined Boston Conservatory at Berklee in September 2024, where her work continues to bridge disciplines and cultures. “Juilliard gave me structure,” she says. “But Berklee gave me diversity—from classical and jazz to pop and modern dance.” At Boston Conservatory at Berklee, she manages collaborations across departments, including one of her most challenging yet rewarding projects: coordinating the college’s partnership with CJ ENM, the Korean entertainment company behind KCON, the world’s largest K-pop festival. From last-minute copyright conflicts between CJ ENM and SM Entertainment, to dancers missing flights and injuries in Los Angeles rehearsals, nearly everything that could go wrong did. “I learned that crisis management is the real test of leadership,” she reflects. “When things fall apart, you have to stay calm, think fast and find solutions everyone can live with.”
Despite the challenges, the collaboration ultimately deepened Berklee’s relationship with CJ ENM. Sun even found herself attending a special cultural talk with the production team of the acclaimed Chinese dance drama A Tapestry of a Legendary Land (Zhi Ci Qing Lv), meeting lead dancers and visiting the Oscar Theatre for an intercultural dialogue. “Moments like that remind me why I do this,” she says.
Apart from Qiubo Sun’s busy full-time work at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, she is also actively engaged in cultural exchange and international arts management. During Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s winter break, for instance, she took the opportunity to lead One Voice on a tour in China, performing in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Nanchang and Wuhan on their first tour in China. Beyond the stage, the tour blossomed into a vivid cultural exchange. In Hangzhou, the choir collaborated with the Xiaobaihua Yue Opera Troupe; in Wenzhou, children experienced traditional paper-cutting, qipao fittings and local water opera. In Shanghai, they filmed a Zootopia-themed Try Everything video inside Disney Resort—a joyful collaboration marking the park’s new expansion. Sun served as the host throughout the tour, bridging audiences across cultures and languages.
The success of the first tour paved the way for a second, spanning Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu. This time, One Voice also appeared on Beijing Satellite TV’s Spring Festival Gala. When the choir reached Peking Union Medical College Hospital for a goodwill visit, the children received handmade panda dolls from cancer patients. This is also a small but powerful gesture of warmth and resilience. “Each city brought something new,” Sun recalls. “Whether meeting students in schools or performing for hospital patients, we were reminded that music can reach places language cannot.” Sun shared with us, “In China, arts management tends to emphasize production, the lighting, staging and technical work,” she explains. “In the U.S., programs like NYU’s emphasize marketing, fundraising, governance and leadership. It’s about how to connect performances with audiences and build lasting engagement.”
From the orchestras of Shanghai to classrooms in Boston Conservatory at Berklee, from children’s choirs to K-pop stages in Los Angeles, Qiubo Sun’s journey reflects what she values most: music’s truest power lies in connection, between people, cultures, and generations.
