Jiayi Liu (b. 2002) is an award-winning Chinese cellist based in Switzerland, a recipient of the Young Musician Prize at the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann and of the 2025 Kiefer Hablitzel | Göhner Musikpreis, and a semifinalist at the 2024 George Enescu International Competition.
As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed in many of Europe’s and Asia’s leading concert halls, including the Berliner Philharmonie, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Tonhalle Zürich, the Romanian Athenaeum, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and Shanghai Symphony Hall, to name a few. She is currently studying at the Basel Academy of Music with Professor Danjulo Ishizaka.
Born in 2002, Jiayi began playing the cello at the age of ten. Her earlier competition successes include Third Prize at the Buchet International Competition and First Prize at the Janigro Cello Competition Junior, where she also received the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra Award.
In recent seasons, Jiayi has appeared as a soloist with the Basel Sinfonieorchester, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Maroc, and the Bodensee Philharmonie, further establishing herself as an emerging young cellist. She is a dedicated chamber musician as a member of the Wendel Quartet; following the quartet’s success at the Orpheus Competition in 2024, they have performed at the Swiss Chamber Music Festival, Musikdorf Ernen, Musica con Vista, and Engelberg.
Jiayi has performed at numerous international festivals, including the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, the Kronberg Festival, the Budapest Festival Academy, and the George Enescu Festival. She has collaborated with distinguished musicians including Vlad Stanculeasa, Ettore Causa, Barbara Doll, and Philippe Bach, among many others.
She is a recipient of the Rahn Kulturfonds Scholarship (2024) and was a member of both the LGT Young Soloists Programme and Morningside Music Bridge, which have given her performance opportunities throughout Europe and China. In 2026, she was selected to join the Fondation Gautier Capuçon. Jiayi performs on a Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi cello, generously loaned through a private patron.
