Saulius Bartulis (cellist) was born in Vilnius on July 19, 1957. In 1976 he graduated from Kaunas J.Naujalis Secondary Art School and in 1982 – from the Lithuanian State Conservatory (presently Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre), class of Doc. R.Kulikauskas.
While studying he participated in chamber music festivals of the Baltic States conservatories and won the 2nd place in one of them (in 1980). In 1992 he improved skills at the international mastery courses “Amadeus” in London.
After finishing the studies, the cellist played in the chamber ensemble of Kaunas Artists’ House and in the chamber ensemble of the capital “Regnum”.
Since 1988 he has been a cellist and artistic director of Kaunas String Quartet.
The musician has organised solo recitals, played solo with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra and in the composition of various ensembles, he recorded 6 vinyl disks, several audio tapes, 13 compact disks, music for drama performances, prepared many premieres of Lithuanian composers (solo, duets, trio, quartets, quintets, etc.) – many recordings are stored in T and Radio funds.
He participated in various music festivals in Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Great Britain, Finland, Norway, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Chile, Argentine, Denmark. The most memorable shows are: at Wurzer Sommerkonzert in Bavaria in 1992, at the Baltic States Cultural Days in Germany in 1993, during German and Lithuanian contemporary music concerts in Berlin, Potsdam, Frankfurt in 1996 and 1999, at Vestfold festival (1998, Norway), at David Oistrakh Music Festival in Estonia (2004), during the concert trip in South Africa (2004), at H.Ch.Andersen Festival in Denmark (2005), Canterbury Music Festival in the UK (2011).
As a soloist and member of various chamber ensembles as well as the cellist of Kaunas Quartet, he participated in the majority of Lithuanian music festivals: Pažaislis Music Festival, Contemporary Music Festivals “From Close”, “Nova Musica”, “Kaunas Jazz”, “Kopa”, “Lagoon Claviers”, “Young Music”, “Note”, Vilnius Summer Festival, 8th and 10th international Vilnius Festival of String Quartets, Druskininkai Summer with M.K.Čiurlionis, Thomas Mann Festival in Nida, and in others.
In addition to classical music, the musician pays special attention to contemporary Lithuanian chamber music. He has performed music pieces of J.Gaidelis, J.Kačinskas, J.Nabažas, V.Laurušas, A.Martinaitis, O.Narbutaitė, V.Bartulis, A.Jesenka, J.Juzeliūnas, F.Bajoras, F.Latėnas, A.Kubiliūnas, A.Šenderovas, M.Urbaitis, D.Kairaitytė, N.Valančiūtė, G.Kuprevičius, V.Germanavičius, V.Barkauskas, V.Juozapaitis, A.Budriūnas, O.Balakauskas, B.Kutavičius, G.Sodeika, Z.Bružaitė, V.Švedas, A.Brilius, L.Narvilaitė, D.Rokaitė, D.Prusevičius, the majority of them – for the first time in Lithuania.
Saulius Bartulis participates actively in educational programmes: concerts-lectures about the creative works of M.K.Čiurlionis for a string quartet at Helsinki University, Joensu (Finland) schools, educational-concert cycle “Development of String Quartet Genre” at Kaunas universities, “Modernists of All Times” at Kaunas Higher Schools, in Punsk, and others.
The cellist favours the works of Kaunas composers: 5 CDs have been issued, in which the quartets, quintets and other chamber music by A.Kubiliūnas, Z.Bružaitė, G.Kuprevičius, D.Kairaitytė, V.Bartulis, D.Rokaitė, A.Brilius, V.Švedas have been recorded. From 2004 the musician organises the traditional cycle of concerts “Quartets of Kaunas Composers”.
S.Bartulis received the prize of the year “Tikra Muzika” (“Real Music”) for popularisation of contemporary music in 2008, he was announced the most memoriable artist of Kaunas along with colleagues from Kaunas Quartet in 2009 and received the RL Government's Culture and Art Prize in 2012.