Dileep Gangolli is a member of the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Lake Forest Symphony Orchestra, Present Music, and the founding director of the Illinois Woodwind Academy. He has also appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Fulcrum Point New Music Project, and the Ars Viva Orchestra. A member of the music faculty at Midwest Young Artists, he has previously taught at VanderCook College of Music and North Park University. Prior to establishing his career in Chicago, he was a member of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Puget Sound.
The founder and artistic director of the Sheridan Chamber Players, Mr. Gangolli’s other chamber music appearances include participating in the Washington Island Music Festival and the Token Creek Music Festival (under the direction of John Harbison), as well as touring Florida and New Brunswick as a member of the Atlantic Arts Trio. He has been a frequent guest on WFMT’s Live from Studio One broadcasts and has appeared with leading Chicago chamber music groups such as the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the New Center for Black Music Research Ensemble, and the Pilgrim Chamber Players. Mr. Gangolli has also performed at the BVI Music Festival (British Virgin Islands), the Bay Chamber Concerts, and the Da Camera Society Concerts, and has also been a repeat performer in the prestigious Dame Myra Hess Concert Series.
An enthusiastic performer of contemporary music, he has participated in several national and international tours and residencies, including the Interlink Festival of Contemporary Music and the Istanbul Contemporary Music Festival. In 2006 and 2010, Mr. Gangolli was invited to appear in recital at the annual convention of the International Clarinet Association.
Mr. Gangolli has recorded for the Albany, Crystal, Decca, Delos, and Erato labels. For Crystal Records, he was part of an ongoing project of the Westwood Wind Quintet to record all twenty-four woodwind quintets of Anton Reicha. As a member of Present Music, he can be heard on recordings that feature the music of Michael Torke and Kamran Ince, performed and recorded under the supervision of the composers themselves.
Mr. Gangolli has earned music degrees from Northwestern University, Southern Methodist University, and the University of Washington. His private clarinet instructors include Robert Marcellus, Anthony Gigliotti, and Ronald Phillips. In 1986, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for advanced study in the United Kingdom. He is a frequent contributor to The Clarinet, the quarterly journal of the International Clarinet Association.
He is the owner of Evanston Cellars, a boutique wine and lifestyle company, and lives on a vineyard in Evanston, IL.