MUSE • Musicians United for Social Equity

Biography

Gita Srinivasan, a native of Maysville, Kentucky, began her cello studies at the age of 11 under the tutelage of Coralie Runyon Jones and Dr. Suanne Blair. Today, Gita resides in Chicago, where she nurtures both a flourishing private studio and a blossoming performance career.

In 2025, Gita earned her Post-Master’s Certificate of Performance from DePaul University under the guidance of Stephen Balderston. At DePaul, Gita particularly relished participation in Baroque ensembles and classical chamber music. In the spring of 2023, Gita graduated from the master’s program at Illinois State University (ISU) in the studio of Dr. Cora Swenson Lee. Gita was an ISU Graduate Merit Fellow who served for two years as the principal cellist of the ISU Symphony Orchestra; she cherished teaching in ISU’s chapter of String Project, as well as privately teaching through both String Project and ISU’s Community School for the Arts.

Previously, Gita studied under the tutelage of Dr. Amy Gillingham Culligan in the undergraduate music program at Northern Kentucky University (NKU), from which Gita graduated in 2021. She gave her solo debut in 2019 with the NKU Philharmonic Orchestra as a winner of the Fall 2018 NKU Concerto Competition. Gita discovered her passion for music instruction in her time at NKU—for three years, she privately taught cello students of all ages through NKU Music Preparatory. She was additionally a proud member of the NKU String Project teaching assistant team from 2019 to 2021. As a teaching assistant for NKU Early Childhood Programs, Gita also had the opportunity to teach children ages 2-6 music and dance from 2019 through the onset of the global pandemic.

Gita served as a 2019-20 fellow of the concert:nova “Next:Gen” program, designed by members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; as a fellow, she grew from a year of mentorship, workshops, and opportunities for creatively engaging performance. She has also received the competitive 3 Arts Scholarship for Cincinnati-area female musicians. Gita toured Europe with the Kentucky Ambassadors of Music in 2012 and toured Ireland in 2018 with the NKU Philharmonic Orchestra. She previously studied mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley; her academic journey away from music ultimately led her back to her cello when she decided to seriously pursue her lifelong dream.