Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna

Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna (6 July 1930 – 22 November 2016) was an Indian Carnatic vocalist, musician, multi-instrumentalist, playback singer, composer, and character actor. He has garnered two National Film Awards (1976, 1987), the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1975, the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian honor in 1991, for his contribution towards arts, the Mahatma Gandhi Silver Medal from UNESCO in 1995, the Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 2005, the Sangeetha Kalanidhi by Madras Music Academy in 1978, and the Sangeetha Kalasikhamani in 1991, by the Fine Arts Society, Chennai to name a few.

Dr. Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna (6 July 1930 – 22 November 2016) was an Indian Carnatic vocalist, musician, multi-instrumentalist, playback singer, composer, and character actor. He was awarded the Madras Music Academy's Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 1978. He has garnered two National Film Awards (1976, 1987), the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1975, the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian honor in 1991, for his contribution towards arts, the Mahatma Gandhi Silver Medal from UNESCO in 1995, the Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 2005, the Sangeetha Kalanidhi by Madras Music Academy, and the Sangeetha Kalasikhamani in 1991, by the Fine Arts Society, Chennai to name a few.

Balamuralikrishna started his career at the age of six. In his life-time, he gave over 25,000 concerts worldwide.[4] Apart from Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, he presented jugalbandi concerts (duets) with Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty and Kishori Amonkar, among others. He is also known for popularizing the compositions of Sri Bhadrachala Ramadasu, Sri Annamacharya, and others.

Balamuralikrishna's concerts combined sophisticated vocal skills and rhythmic patterns of classical music with the popular demand for entertainment value. Balamuralikrishna presented concerts in many countries, including the US, Canada, UK, Italy, France, Russia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, countries in the Middle East, and elsewhere. Apart from his native tongue, Telugu, he has also composed in other languages including Kannada, Sanskrit, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali, and Punjabi.

He appeared as a featured soloist with an award-winning British choir, performing the "Gitanjali Suite" with words from Rabindranath Tagore's Nobel Prize-winning poetry and music by "Dr. Joel", the noted UK-based Goan composer. His clear diction in several languages prompted an invitation to record Tagore's entire Rabindra Sangeet compositions in Bengali, preserving them for posterity. He had sung in French, and even ventured into jazz fusion, collaborating with the top Carnatic percussion teacher, Sri T.H. Subash Chandran, in a concert for Malaysian royalty.

Balamuralikrishna was born in Sankaraguptam, East Godavari District, Madras Presidency (now a part of Andhra Pradesh state).[6] His father, Mangalampalli Pattabhiramayya, was a well known musician and his mother, Suryakanthamma, was a veena player. Balamuralikrishna's mother died when he was an infant and he was raised by his father. Observing his interest in music, his father put him under the tutelage of Parupalli Ramakrishnayya Pantulu, a direct descendant of the shishya parampara (lineage of disciples) of Tyagaraja. Under his guidance, the young Balamuralikrishna learned Carnatic music. At the age of eight, he gave his first full-fledged concert at a Thyagaraja Aradhana in Vijayawada. Musunuri Suryanarayana Murty Bhagavatar, a Harikatha performer, saw the musical talent in him and gave the prefix "Bala" (lit. child) to the young Balamuralikrishna. (Prior to this, his name was Muralikrishna; following Bhagavatar's addition of the prefix, he began to be known as Balamuralikrishna.)

Having begun his musical career at a very young age, by age fifteen he had mastered all the 72 melakartha ragas and had composed krithis in each of them. His Janaka Raga Manjari was published in 1952 and recorded as Raagaanga Ravali in a nine-volume series by the Sangeeta Recording Company. Not merely content with his fame as a Carnatic vocalist, he also played the kanjira, mridangam, viola, and violin. He accompanied various musicians on the violin. He also presented solo viola concerts. He was the person who introduced viola to classical Indian music. 

Awards and honours

Civilian honours

• Padma Shri (1971)
• Padma Bhushan
• Padma Vibhushan (1991)
• Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the Government of France (2005)

National Film Awards (India)

• Best Male Playback Singer for the Kannada musical movie Hamsageethe (1975)
• Best Music Direction for the Kannada film Madhvacharya (1986)

Kerala State Film Award

• Best singer for Swathi Thirunal (1987)
• Best Classical Music Singer for Gramam (2010)
• Tamil Nadu State Film Award
• Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Male Playback singer for Pasanga (2009)

Other honours

• Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1975)
• Sangeetha Kalanidhi by Madras Music Academy (1978)
• Raja-Lakshmi Award in 1980 by Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation in Chennai
• Doctor of Letters from Shri Venkateshwara University (1981)
• Honorary PhD from Andhra University
• Doctor of Science from Andhra University
• Doctor of Letters from Andhra University
• Sangeetha Kalasikhamani by The Fine Arts Society, Chennai (1991)
• Mahatma Gandhi Silver Medal from UNESCO (1995)
• Natya Kalasikhamani The Fine Arts Society, Chennai (2001)
• Sangeetha Kalasarathy (2002)
• "Sangeetha Virinchi" title conferred by Sangeetha Bharathi music School, Auckland, New Zealand (2009)
• Lifetime Achievement Award by the Global Indian Music Academy Awards (2011)
• First Citizen Award from Vijayawada City
• "Wisdom Man of the Year" (1992)
• "Naada Maharishi" by the Nrityalaya Aesthetics Society (1996)

A documentary film, The Melody Man, was made on his life by the Government of India Films Division. The film was directed by National award winner Director Gul Bahar Singh.

Telugu Book of Records honoured him for Telugu Legendary Personality in 2014 at Vijayawada