About
Instrument: Cello
AYO: 2026
Fourteen-year-old Gabriel Liu is a cellist and pianist from Camberwell Grammar School in Melbourne, where he holds a full music scholarship. He studies with David Berlin, Principal Cellist of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and Rachel Atkinson, Head of the CGS Music Academy. Gabriel has participated in masterclasses with leading cellists including Li-Wei Qin, Howard Penny, Ben Davies, and Professor Danjulo Ishizaka of the Berlin University of the Arts. In 2025, Gabriel attended the Cello Akademie Rutesheim in Germany, where Professor Ishizaka selected him as the top student in his masterclass to perform in the festival’s solo concert.
Gabriel has received prizes at numerous Victorian eisteddfods, including First Prize in the MSV 15 Years & Under Strings and overall winner of the Ringwood Eisteddfod Grand Final. In 2024, he was a top-three finalist in Season 1 of 3MBS’s The Talent. As cellist of the Kingussie Trio, he won Second Prize in Musica Viva’s Strike A Chord 2025, as well as the Boroondara and MSV Chamber Music Competitions in the same year. Gabriel also holds the LMusA (Cello), awarded with Distinction, and the AMusA (Piano), awarded with Distinction.