Prasad Bhandarkar started learning Hindustani music when he was 8 years old. He was initiated into classical music by his mother. Prasad got his initial training on Harmonium and Hindustani vocal music.

During his engineering college years, Prasad wanted to learn a solo performing instrument and happened to attend a concert by the renowned maestro Padma Vibhushan Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia in Gunidaas Sammelan in Mumbai. The simplicity of the Bansuri flute and Hariji's playing style really appealed to him. Soon he started learning Bansuri from Shri Anantrao Patwardhan of Mumbai. In 1988, he was fortunate to become student of Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia. Prasad derives strong influence from Pandit Chaurasia’s emotional and soulful style of playing Bansuri.

In recent years, Prasad has been learning music from the noted Sitar player of Maihar Gharana, Pandit Partha Chatterjee who is one of the prominent disciples of the late Pandit Nikhil Banerjee. Partha-da perfectly combines the gayaki (vocal) and and tantrakari (string instrumental) styles in his music and Prasad finds this approach very attractive and replicable in Bansuri.

Musician by passion and engineer by profession with post graduate degree in Management, Prasad is now based in the San Francisco, California where he has been performing both in solo Bansuri classical concerts and in light music concerts as accompanist. Prasad also offers Bansuri flute lessons in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prasad hosts www.bansuriflute.com where he provides information on learning Bansuri for beginners.