"My musicianship classroom teaching is heavily influenced by my years studying in Hungary and I have adapted many Kodály-flavored techniques emphasizing strong inner hearing, musical memory, flexibility and independence. Placing a high value on students' enjoyment of music making, with and without an instrument, my class is fun and relaxed, but also very challenging."

Active as a composer, teacher, and arts administrator in the San Francisco Bay Area, Michael Kaulkin writes choral, orchestral, chamber, and vocal music performed by ensembles across the United States and abroad. His String Quartet No. 1 ("City Walks"), a finalist for The American Prize in Chamber Music, was recorded by Juventas New Music Ensemble for the Navona Records album THROUGHLINES, released in May 2026. His new choral work, Song of Becoming, with texts in English and Persian, is scheduled for premiere by the Southern Arizona Symphony Chorus in December 2026.

In the Bay Area, Kaulkin’s music has been performed by the Oakland East Bay Symphony, San Francisco Choral Artists, Mission Chamber Orchestra, LIEDER ALIVE!, West Edge Opera, and others. His choral arrangement "Tumbalalayka" has been performed widely in the U.S. and internationally, and appears on the French vocal quartet Aesthesis' album O Do Not Move. "American Standard" for clarinet and piano has also been performed widely and is included on Time Pieces: 60 Years of American Music, released by the UK label Clarinet Classics.

Kaulkin holds an M.M. degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied composition with Conrad Susa, having previously studied composition and choral conducting at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary. A member of the Musicianship and Composition faculty of SFCM’s Pre-College Division since 2008, he has also taught at The Crowden School, the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, the Academy of Art University, and summer Kodály programs at Holy Names University and Portland State University.