Mahesh Kale

Mahesh Kale was born in Pune on 12 January 1976 and began learning music from his mother, Meenal Kale, a trained Hindustani musician, later studying with Purushottam Gangurde. In 1991 he was accepted as a disciple of Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki, and for more than eight years trained with him in a gurukul-like setting in khayal and in the semi-classical and devotional forms — thumri, dadra, tappa, bhajan and Marathi natya sangeet — for which his guru was famous. He accompanied Abhisheki in concert as vocal support and also received guidance from the guru's son, Shounak Abhisheki.

He studied electronics engineering in Pune and engineering management at Santa Clara University, and settled in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he and his wife Purva Gujar-Kale run the Indian Classical Music and Arts Foundation. He has performed widely across India, the United States, the Gulf, Europe, Australia and Southeast Asia, made his Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Festival debut in 2011, and has sung the central role in the Marathi musical Katyar Kaljat Ghusali since 2010.

For the song "Aruni Kirani" in the 2015 film adaptation of Katyar Kaljat Ghusali, he won the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer at the 63rd National Film Awards.

Khayal and natya sangeet in the Abhisheki manner, with a strong presence in devotional and semi-classical repertoire.