Barry Luo began his cello studies at the age of ten with Qing-Yu Qin in his hometown of Melbourne. His local achievements include the Dandenong Eisteddfod under 16’s Category 1st prize and runner-up at the 2003 Preston Concerto Competition. In 2004 Barry was invited, as a result of his outstanding VCE Music Performance exam, to perform in the Top Class recital at the ABC Iwaki Auditorium and the Top Acts concert at the Hamer Hall. He was accepted into the Bachelor of Music course at Melbourne University soon after.
In 2006 Barry travelled abroad to Germany and was offered a place at the Freiburg Music Conservatory to study with Adriana Contino. Five months later Barry left Germany for the U.K as a recipient of the prestigious Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music Full International Undergraduate Scholarship and was accepted into the class of Karine Georgian at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
In 2010, upon receiving his Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours at the RNCM, Barry travelled to Switzerland where he was offered a place in Raphael Wallfisch’s class at the Zürich University of Arts and was accepted into the Master of Arts (Specialising in Music Performance) program. In the final year of his studies in Zürich Barry won the highly coveted Cello Internship position at the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra in Germany. He has since gone on to become a Tutti Cello member of the orchestra. During his time at the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra Barry was also appointed Cello Teacher at the North Breisgau State Music School where he taught for six years.
Barry has appeared regularly as a soloist and chamber musician in venues across Europe including the Holywell Music Room and the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, the Ton Halle in Zürich and the Konzerthaus in Freiburg to name a few. Barry has played in masterclasses for world-leading musicians including Janos Starker, Ralph Kirshbaum, Liwei Qin and Lawrence Power amongst others. He has also collaborated over the years with esteemed Australian musicians Brett Dean, David Berlin and Daniel Carter. Barry’s most recent concert appearances saw him perform Vivaldi’s Double Cello Concerto with the Freiburg Philharmonic Youth Orchestra as well as the German premiere of Matthew Hindson’s Piano Trio at the Stadttheater Freiburg.
Barry returned to Melbourne permanently as of June 2018. Since arriving back he has been teaching at Scotch College and Mentone Girls’ Grammar School. Along-side his cello teaching duties Barry is also Conductor of the St. Kilda Park Primary School Orchestra and Cello Examiner for the AMEB.
Barry most recently appeared as Principal Cellist with The Philharmonic Orchestra Singapore and guest Cello Teacher with the Raffles Institution String Ensemble in 2019.