Born in a house of musicians in Aurangabad, Dilip inherited the musical legacy of his family. Starting at an early age, Dilip was inducted in Hindustani classical music by his father, Late Prabhakar Kale and brother Pandit Dr. Raja Kale, a celebrated vocalist and disciple of Late Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki. Starting with vocal music and harmonium, Dilip went on to learn the Tabla and received training from Late Pandit Ramesh Samant. While this was a solid foundation to his journey as a musician, he was on the quest to find his medium of musical expression.
While pursuing classical music, Dilip also listened to a lot of film music, appreciating the intricacies in arrangements. He noticed a string instrument he hadn't quite heard before and was intrigued by its wonderful tonal quality and range. He learnt that it was the Santoor, an exotic instrument from the valleys of Kashmir, and he was immensely drawn towards it. In 1981, Dilip attended Pandit Shivkumar Sharma’s concert in Aurangabad and had the opportunity to meet the Maestro and see the instrument up-close later. Moved and mesmerised by the experience, he knew his quest was over and he had found his true calling.
In the years to follow, Dilip started attending almost every one of Shivji’s concert- intently listening, watching, and learning. The Santoor wasn’t easily available, so he created an experimental prototype using a ‘Swarmandal’ and started playing it in a style similar to the Santoor. His experiment gained popularity locally and he went on to play and record music aired on the All India Radio, Aurangabad.
In 1985, Dilip presented this experiment to Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, who appreciated his efforts, and gladly accepted Dilip as his shisya (disciple). Guruji encouraged Dilip to get a Santoor for himself from Kashmir in 1985 and thus began his journey with the Santoor as he commenced his formal training under guidance of the Maestro himself.
Dilip shifted base to Pune in 1987. He went on to play the Santoor at the All India Radio and Film & Television Institute, Pune. With interest in film and theatrical music, Dilip began to play the Santoor for movies, theatrical plays, TV serials and stage-shows under the direction of some legendary music directors, viz. Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Shamrao Kamble, Ashok Patki, Anand Modak, Narendra Bhide, and Bhaskar Chandawarkar. Similarly he has also recorded the Santoor for songs in the albums of Asha Bhosle, Suresh Wadkar, Pt. Prabhakar Jog etc.
He has rendered the Santoor in 100+ live shows of poetry such as ‘PreetRang’, a program dedicated to celebrate romantic poems in Marathi written by celebrity poets; ‘Kavyer Katha’, a program of poetry of Late Rabindranath Tagore; ‘Bhairav te Bhairavi’ and ‘Sobaticha Karar’. Dilip also played the santoor in the musical based on the Indian classic, ‘Meghdoota’ by Kalidas translated in Marathi by legendary poet V. V. Shirwadkar and presented by the Cutural wing of Nehru Centre, Mumbai. The music was composed by Late Anand Modak and choreographed by Pandita Zelam Paranjape.
Along with the classical music, Dilip loves to render light-classical music as he relates to the emotions and expressions it evokes. Some of Dilip’s memorable solo performances include ‘Teen Prahar music festival’ organized by Banyan Tree Events at Nehru centre, Mumbai; Sankatmochan Music Festival, Banaras; Gurubhakti festival at Sharda Sangeet Sabha, Mumbai, Gunijan Baithak at Mumbai and Nagpur organized by Pancham Nishad and Sapktak; Silsila Santoor Ka organized by HMV-SaReGaMa at Pune; Sanskar Bharati, Pune; Pune Festival, Pune; Pune Music Society, Pune; DITI Festival, Singapore, Swarzankar music festival, Aurangabad & Pune; Gunidas Sangeet Sammelan, Mumbai, Vithall-Rukhmini Mohotsav, Pandharpur; Osho International Commune, Pune; Precision Sangeet Samaroha, Solapur; Shri Guru Sharanam Sangeet Samaroh, Pune; Ganesh Jayanti festival at Sarasbag, Pune; Vande Vinayakam Sangeet Samaroha organized by the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, Pune; Prabhudev Sardar Sangeet Samaroha, Solapur; Sawai Gandharva Sangeet Samaroha, Kundgol, etc.
He has played several ‘jugalbandi’ co-performances with notable artists like Pt. Keshav Ginde, Pt. Rajendra Kulkarni, Mr. Amar Oak (the flute); Dr. Dhananjay Daithankar (the santoor); Pt. Pramod Gaikwad (the shahanai); Ustad Usaman Khan (the sitar); Pt. Atulkumar Upadhe (the violin) to name a few.
Dilip fondly acknowledges contributions of all the Tabla payers, who played with him in various concerts and recordings, especially Pt. Aanish Pradhan, Pt. Adhiya Kalyanpur, Pt. Arvindkumar Azad, Pt. Mukesh Jadhav, Mr. Nawaz Mirajkar, Mr. Nilesh Randive, Pt. Ojas Adhiya, Mr. Prashant Joshi, Pt. Ramdas Palsule, Pt. Ramkumar Mishra, Mr. Rohit Mujumdar, Pt. Satyajeet Talwalkar, Mr. Shon Patil, Pt. Supreet Deshpande, Mr. Tejas Burse, Mr. Vibhav Khandolkar, Pt. Vijay Ghate, Pt. Vinayak Phatak and Pt. Yogesh Samsi.
Dilip has had unique opportunities to co-perform with his Guruji, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma in a few prestigious music festivals. These performances include ‘Swara: Music for Life’, organized by Banyan Tree Events at Nagpur; “Life Story of a Legend” organized by the Times Music group at Mumbai & Delhi; Raga Rasa Rang, a unique thematic concert at NCPA, Mumbai & Pune; ‘Riyaz Aur Taleem’ organized at Mumbai by NCPA and at Pune organized jointly by the Lalit Kala Kendra & Ganvardhan, Pune; ‘Kala Virasat’ organised by Banyan Tree Events at Mumbai.
Dilip holds the unique distinction of rendering the santoor and recreating the music Shivji played in the films by performing in the programs of film music in the presence of Guruji. A few of these programs includes ‘Silsila Santoor ka’, a show in which ~25 songs of Bollywood, originally rendered by Guruji, were performed live at Mumbai; ‘Dil Chiz Kya Hain’ program to celebrate compositions of notable music director Late Khaiyam saheb at Mumbai in his presence; ‘Naino me badra chaye’ a concert of composition by Late Madanmohan ji by Hamrahi, Pune; ‘Tumsa Nahi Dekha’a live performances of the film songs composed by Late O.P. Nayyar ji at Pune in the presence of Guruji.
Dilip was blessed to get an opportunity to interview Guru, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma in a live talk show at Pune which was designed by Dilip in collaboration with Mitra Foundation to offer a tribute to Giruji’s contributions to the Indian film industry. He worked hard from concept to implementation for the program titled ‘Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma - Live in Concert and Conversation: Beyond 100 strings’. This was a formal attempt to document Guruji’s long standing contributions in Indian Film Industry with three sections respectively reviewing his work with other music directors in Hindi, Marathi and SHIVHARI, his own music directions with Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. In the talk show titled, ‘Lamhe’ at Nagpur and Dharwad, organized by Infinity events, and an event organized by Sanket, Mumbai titled ‘Dil Ka Bhavar kare Pukar’, Dilip had interviewed Guruji to unfold memories of associations with legendary music directors of Bollywood.
In 2018, Dilip has collaborated with Mr. Sateesh Paknikar, a renowned photographer, on creating SwaraMaitra- a thematic feature calendar, celebrating the life and friendship of two legends Padma Vibhushan Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and Padma Vibhushan Pandit Hariprasad Chourasia, and it was published at Sawai Gandharva Music Festival. He also shared his experiences about Guruji in a coffee table book titles ‘The Legend of Santoor’ published by the Sri Satya Sai Premamrutha Prakashana.
Dilip has received several awards and critical acclaim for his music.
LIFE BEYOND MUSIC…
Dilip also brings with him experience of management of Public Charitable Trusts (PCTs) for over 25 years. He was associated with Maharashtra Executor & Trustee Company, a subsidiary of the Bank of Maharashtra, a nationalized bank. He has managed and advised over 350 PCTs with varied objectives. One of the unique distinctions of Mr. Kale lies in providing professional services with customized solutions. He made sure that the funds for social cause are used for the right purpose and reach the people in need. His dedicated services resulted in designing several unique, purposeful programs, protecting interests of the givers and takers. He has been successful in setting very high standards for the management of PCTs yet maintaining a humanitarian approach based on social justice while achieving a balance in protecting interests of all the stakeholders. He has advised companies to design innovative programs under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) domain. He currently advises several PCTs and is a Trustee of several trusts including Persistent Foundation.