Sunny Yang

Principal Cello

Sunny Yang joined the San Francisco Opera Orchestra as Principal Cello in 2025. Described as "coolly unflappable and supremely competent" and selected as one of the Faces to Watch by the LA Times, Sunny has sustained a versatile international career as a cellist and educator.

As the cellist of the Kronos Quartet for ten years, she continually reimagined the concert experience as a living art form. Touring five months a year, she performed extensively at the world's most celebrated venues and festivals, commissioned over 500 new works, and released more than 20 critically acclaimed albums. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance, the German Critics Award, and the Edison Klassiek Award. She has held the Richard and Barbara Debs Creative Chair at Carnegie Hall, as well as an Honorary Fellowship at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. She has made concerto appearances with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra.

Sunny has led workshops and masterclasses at major institutions worldwide, including Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute, the String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam, and the Washington Performing Center for the Arts. She was instrumental in developing and launching Fifty for the Future, a legacy educational project in partnership with Carnegie Hall, that presents fifty contemporary works made freely accessible.