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.

Peter was named Host of From the Top in January 2020.

Peter Dugan’s position is sponsored by Susan and Gerald Slavet.

Peter first appeared on From the Top Show 158, recorded in April 2007, at age 18.

Prizing versatility as the key to the future of classical music, pianist Peter Dugan is equally at home in classical, jazz, and pop idioms.

He is heard nationwide as the  host of NPR’s beloved program From the Top.  He has appeared as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician across North America and abroad. 

In 2020, Mr Dugan performed with Joshua Bell on a PBS Broadcast “At Home with Music” and appeared on  the album of the same name on Sony Classical. He was also featured on PBS Great Performances with mezzo-soprano Kara Dugan for the series “Now Hear This”.

A sought-after multi-genre artist, Mr. Dugan has performed in duos and trios with artists ranging from Itzhak Perlman and Renee Fleming to Jesse Colin Young and Glenn Close. Mr Dugan’s debut performances with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony were described by the Los Angeles Times as “stunning” and by the SF Chronicle as “fearlessly athletic.” The Wall Street Journal described Mr. Dugan’s collaboration with violinist Charles Yang as a “classical-meets-rockstar duo.” Mr. Dugan has been presented in chamber music recitals by Carnegie Hall, Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, Music at Menlo, Moab Music Festival, and recently in recital with Joshua Bell at the Minnesota Beethoven Festival.  He was the 2019 featured recitalist for the California Association of Professional Music Teachers, and has soloed with the San Francisco Symphony, Houston Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, New World Symphony, and Mid-Texas Symphony.

His album with baritone John Brancy –  A Silent Night: A WWI Memorial in Song – pays homage to composers who lived through, fought in, and died in the Great War. Brancy and Dugan toured this program across North America in commemoration of the centennial of WWI, including performances at The Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Stanford University, the United States Naval Academy, and the Smithsonian Institute.  Together Brancy and Dugan won first prize at the 2018 Montreal International Music Competition and second prize at the 2017 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition. He can also be heard as the piano soloist on a recording of Ives’ Fourth Symphony from Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, a recording which the New York Times named one of the top classical albums of 2019. 

Mr. Dugan advocates the importance of music in the community and at all levels of society.  As a founding creator of Operation Superpower, a superhero opera for children, he has traveled to dozens of schools in the greater New York area, performing for students and encouraging them to use their talents – their superpowers – for good.

Mr. Dugan holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where he studied under Matti Raekallio. He was a recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s Young Scholar, College Scholar, and Graduate Scholar awards.

He resides in New York City with his wife, mezzo-soprano Kara Dugan, and serves on the piano faculty at the Juilliard School Evening Division. Mr. Dugan is a Yamaha Artist.