Gabriela Peña-Kim was born in Baltimore, Maryland, raised in Jacksonville, Florida and currently lives in Bloomington, Indiana. She is the recipient of the Premiere Young Artist award, Music Faculty Award, and the Jacobs Access Grant, at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. She is studying under Professor Alexander Kerr at IU, previously having studied with Jorge Pena and Aurica Duca in Jacksonville, Florida.

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Gabriela was a winner of the Sarasota Young Artists Series String Competition, a winner of the 2012 Performers Award at the Friday Musicale Competition, and an honorable mention in the Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition. In 2011 she attended the Interlochen Center for the Arts with a full scholarship as an Emerson Scholar, and in 2012 she attended The Kennedy Center NSO Summer Institute also receiving a full scholarship. Gabriela was Concertmistress while at Interlochen in the World Youth Symphony Orchestra, as well as in the Prelude Music Camp and the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra (JSYO). She was a member of JSYO for 7 years, also with which she was a two time finalist in the Young Artist Concerto Competition.

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She has been a part of chamber performances with the St. Augustine Music Festival, the Amelia Chamber Music Festival, and the NSO Summer Institute, having performed on the Millenium Stage and the historic Cathedral Basilica. Gabriela has participated in masterclasses with Paul Kantor, Joel Smirnoff, Philip Setzer, Jennifer Frautschi, Chee Yun, Augustin Hadelich, Jorja Fleezanis, and Margaret Batjer.