A New Home: Shen Yun’s Australian Conductor Leif Sundstrup
Perhaps symbolic of the international character of Shen Yun Performing Arts, the company's four conductors hail from four different countries—Bulgaria (Milen Nachev), Taiwan (Keng-Wei Kuo), Japan (Yohei Sato), and Australia (Leif Sundstrup).
One of the newest members of the Shen Yun team, Leif Erikson Sundstrup is an extremely accomplished conductor now showcasing his talents with the Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra on its United States tour. He is a leading Australian composer who has conducted all of the major symphony orchestras on the continent. Winner of the 1996 Symphony Australia National Conducting Competition, Dr. Sundstrup most recently was the Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Darwin Symphony Orchestra.
He joined Shen Yun earlier this summer, and it immediately seemed as if he had been with the company for years.
“Shen Yun is like a family, and everyone gets along so well," he says. "One thing that struck me, even just in rehearsals, is how everyone is so diligent with their attention and concentration."
“I think the orchestra is on the brink of getting not just an international reputation for innovation, but a reputation for artistic standard," says Sundstrup. “The orchestra is just a seed at the moment and it’s going to grow very, very quickly and become something that no one will ever want to miss.”
He has already seen this in the reaction of audience members during the first half of the Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra's tour—its performances in Washington, DC, New York, Houston, and Dallas. “They all say the same things—that they feel this divine power coming out from the orchestra, and not just based on the fantastic compositions that we get to perform, but also there’s an energy that comes out of the players.”
“The players come from all over the world, and the blending, of course, of East and West—I think it’s just a hotspot of great artistic vitality and it’s got every single thing going for it to be an international orchestra of very high standard.”
Those in California now have a chance to enjoy Sundstrup's musical talents (and humor). The Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra will perform at Orange County's Segerstrom Concert Hall Friday and Saturday, followed by the tour's final performance at San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall, Tuesday.
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