Veola Sun is a doctoral student at McGill University studying with Ilya Poletaev. She made her orchestral debut in 2019 with the UCLA Philharmonia and, in 2024, gave two performances of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 with Alexis Hauser and the McGill Symphony Orchestra. Her awards include first prizes in McGill’s Classical Concerto Competition, Atlantic Music Festival’s Piano Competition, and both UCLA’s “All-Star” and Atwater Concerto Competitions. In 2024, she was honoured to sit on the first junior jury of the Concours musical international de Montreal (CMIM).
Highly sought after as a collaborative pianist and chamber musician, she has played with many colleagues in recitals and competitions, including McGill’s prestigious Golden Violin Award, most recently with the 2025-2026 winner, Joey Machin. Currently, she is the pianist of the Ottica Trio, under the guidance of Violaine Melançon, who competed at the 2026 Fischoff Chamber Competition in South Bend, Indiana.
Veola earned her Bachelor of Music degree and a minor in Musicology at UCLA with David Kaplan, graduating magna cum laude. She is additionally thankful for the mentorship and guidance of James Lent, Kyoko Hashimoto, and Michael McMahon.
Biography
Doctoral Research Project
Does clothing choice affect musical evaluations?
Attractiveness bias
A great many studies have shown that humans associate attractiveness with success, higher likelihood of academic achievement, etc. There are studies to suggest this extends to music performance as well, in the sense that more attractive performers generally receive higher musical ratings.
Physical aspects of performance
Many recent studies have clearly demonstrated that the various physical aspects in a musical performance (e.g. attractiveness, clothing choice, race, gender, body movement) have direct impacts on the audience’s perception of the music itself.
Identity
Fashion is one of the primary means of self-expression. Where do we find the balance pleasing ourselves and pleasing others?