Bhargava Kulkarni, cello

Meet Bhargava

Bhargava performs on Show 456.

Bhargava Kulkarni (cello), 16, hails from Okemos, Michigan, and attends the Okemos High School. Bhargava started learning the cello as a four-year old in the local Suzuki program with Molly Rebeck. Later he studied with Horacio Contreras and Richard Aaron. For the past six years, he has been studying with Professor Amir Eldan at the University of Michigan. His repertoire includes concertos by Haydn, Elgar, Davidov, Kabalevsky, Saint-Saens, Rococo Variations by Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Dvorak and others, sonatas by Beethoven and Brahms, suites by Bach and Cassado, and many short pieces for cello and piano. Bhargava has also performed chamber music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Arensky and more.

Bhargava has won several local competitions, the MTNA (Michigan) competition in the junior division (November 2020 and 2021), as well as the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra Young Artist competition (December 2022). He is also selected to perform in the live rounds of the International Young Artist Concerto Competition in Chicago. He has also held leadership chair positions at the All-State High School orchestra and Michigan Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Bhargava has given numerous solo and chamber music performances. Most recent memorable performances were at the Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra in March 2023, at the Indiana University Summer String Academy in Summer 2023, and at the Morningside Music Bridge in Summer 2024. He has also performed in the studio classes of his teacher as well as in masterclasses at various summer programs.

Besides cello, he is keenly interested in mathematics, reading, chess and running.