Born in San Francisco to a family of professional musicians, Curtis Liu is a young Chinese-American oboist whose musical journey began at the age of five. With a solid foundation in piano, he took up the oboe at nine and quickly revealed an extraordinary gift for the instrument.
At just eleven years old, Curtis won top honors at the American Virtuoso International Music Competition, leading to his debut performance on the legendary stage of Carnegie Hall. Prior to that, he had already become a standout representative of the Tianjin Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division, performing extensively at off-campus events and earning widespread acclaim from both media and audiences. Critics have praised him as “a new-generation oboist who beautifully bridges Eastern depth and Western virtuosity.”
Curtis currently performs on a newly developed ML-Jade model gold-plated oboe — an instrument co-designed by his father, Mingjia Liu (Principal Oboist of the San Francisco Opera and Oboe Faculty at Tianjin Juilliard), in collaboration with the renowned French oboe manufacturer F.Lorée. For Curtis, this instrument is far more than a feat of craftsmanship; it is a living legacy. Every note he plays carries not only technical brilliance and tonal beauty, but also a profound connection to history, heritage, and the art of storytelling through music.