Mahesh Kale is a talented North Indian Classical vocalist of the new generation. At the tender age of three, Mahesh delighted an audience of over 5000 at a religious place, “Gondavale”, with the rendition of a devotional song. Mahesh was initiated into music by his mother Smt. Meenal Kale, an established vocalist in her own right who completed her Masters in Music under the guidance of Smt Veena Sahasrabuddhe. Mahesh also was taught by Shri Purushottam Gangurde who was a disciple of Shri Yashwantbua Joshi.

A life defining moment for Mahesh was when he got accepted into the gurukul of the illustrious doyen Padmashree Pt. Jitendra Abhisheki in 1991. Within the framework of the traditional Guru-Shishya parampara, Mahesh was trained in classical, semi-classical, and marathi natya sangeet. His latent skills were honed to produce in him a brilliant singer of classical music, tappa, thumri, bhajan, bhavgeet and natyageet and his technical expertise over rhythm and melody is now blatantly evident in all his renditions. Pt Abhisheki’s music had the influence of various Gharanas (schools of music) and Mahesh’s peformances reflect a pleasant blend of the same. Presently Mahesh continues to receive guidance from Shri Shounak Abhisheki.

While living in India and training under Pt. Jitendra Abhisheki, Mahesh has provided able vocal support to his gurus in prestigious concerts including Sawai Gandharva Mahotsav, Malhar Utsav, Spic Macay, to name a few. He has also appeared on television and radio on programs such as National Integrity concert, Jeevan Gane, Bhakti Bhav, and also given solo concerts in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Indore and Goa. He also has had the privilege to work with eminent personalities like Prabhakar Karekar, Suresh Wadkar, Shridhar Phadke, Anand Modak, Upendra Bhat.

Mahesh came to the USA initially for higher studies in the field of Media Arts and Technology, and later did a Masters in Engineering Management. However his ‘calling’ was music and he has for the past 4 years devoted himself single-mindedly to this art and made it his profession. He has established his presence very firmly as a talented and popular artiste in the USA, giving numerous concerts coast to coast in the USA, as well as in UAE and India.

More recently, Mahesh has been playing the central character in a popular Sangeet Natak (musical), Katyar Kaljat Ghusli (Photos), that was revived earlier this year. He has been honored with an award by the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Natya Parishad for his role in this play in 2010. He has also performed with world famous percussionists like Trilok Gurtu and Sivamani and instrumentalists like Pedro Eustache and Frank Martin, ably demonstrating his versatility as a composer and singer.

In an effort to spread awareness and education about Indian classical music in the western world, Mahesh has given several lecture-demonstrations in various universities in the USA (Stanford University, Harvard University, Sacramento State University, University of California at Santa Barbara, San Diego State University, University of Arizona at Tucson, and many others) He was profiled as the Artist of the month at Harvard Sangeet in March 2008. He also continues to give interviews on radio to further his efforts. His current student body of over a 100 students ranges from 5 year olds to 50 year olds, all of them inspired to learn and preserve this art even while living in the western world.