Divine Voice Falls Silent

It is very difficult to write a tribute to a great personality in carnatic music, when the season for the music is about to start. And for a man of immense talent and brilliance like balamuralikrishna one cannot list of all the greatness in his life, in just few pages. Throughout the performing arts, not everyone is gifted to called or referred to become a legend in their own lifetime, but this rare honour came so easily to m balamuralikrishna (1930-2016). A man who is often regarded as one of the top exponent of carnatic music, has road named after him in vijayawada and kalyana mandapam has been constructed in his name in visakhapatnam.

Balamuralikrishna was born in Sankaraguptam, East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh state in 1930. His father was a well known musician and could play the flute, violin and the veena and his mother was an excellent veena player. His mother died when he was an infant of just two weeks and later he was raised by his father. Observing his penchant for music, his father put him under the tutelage of Parupalli Ramakrishnayya Pantulu, a direct descendant of the shishya parampara of Tyagaraja.

Under his guidance, the young Balamuralikrishna learned Carnatic music. At the age of eight, Balamuralikrishna gave his first full-fledged concert at a Thyagaraja Aradhana, Vijayawada. Musunuri Suryanarayana Murty Bhagavatar, a distinguished Harikatha performer, saw the musical talent in the child and gave the prefix 'Bala' (child) to the young Muralikrishna. This title has stuck ever since and Balamuralikrishna has been known so. Balamuralikrishna thus began his musical career at a very young age. By the age of fifteen he had mastered all the 72 melakartha ragas and had composed krithis in the same. The 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, very soon started playing the kanjira, mridangam, viola and violin. He also accompanied various musicians in violin and is also noted to give solo viola concerts.