T K Radhakrishnan
Sri T K Radhakrishnan - renowned Carnatic Classical Flutist and Musician was born in the year 1919, his talent in Flute honed by Sangita Kalanidhi Palladam Sanjeeva Rao. He learnt the other aspects of music from his maternal grandfather Kittam Bhagavatar. His father Late Sree T. G. Krishna Iyer, well known as "Lalitha Dasar" has composed many songs and slokas on various deities with the Mudra "Sree Lalitha". Many of these compositions are set to tune by Sree Chembai Vaidyanatha Baghavathar. His late brother, Sree T. K. Ramachandran, had also been a leading violin vidwan.
At age 10, T. K. Radhakrishnan performed in the presence of the Maharaja of Mysore,Sree Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV. The appreciative Maharaja awarded him with a medal. On the eve of India’s Independence, at a farewell party for its last viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, it was T.K. Radhakrishnan, who had given a recital at the historic event.
His music is always noted for its traditional gayaki style of playing the flute, that was greatly appreciated for its grammatical correctness and etiquette.
As an ‘A’ grade artist of All India Radio, he had given a number of concerts on AIR, Doordarshan,also at national programmes and had participated in Sangeetha Sammelans throughout the country. He had a glittering array of names as accompanists on the Violin including T. Chowdiah, Kumbakonam Rajamanickam Pillai, Mayavaram Govindaraja Pillai, Pappa Venkatramiah and M.S. Gopalakrishnan. On the mridangam front, the vidwans included Palghat Mani Iyer, C. S. Murugabhoopathy, Palani Subramaniam Pillai, Guruvayoor Dorai and T. V. Gopalakrishnan.
Sri.T.K. Radhakrishnan and T. Chowdiah had performed at many "eka raga" kutcheries, where a particular raga would be played throughout the concert elucidating a different mood of the raga in tandem with the Kriti selected. This brought out the multi-faceted imagination of the musician who can play the same scale of notes with distinctive difference and bhava. He is also known for his repertoire of kritis of various composers.
His disciples included Sri T A Hariharan and Sri A V Unnikrishnan who are well known musicians and flautists in their own right.
He had been honoured with the Kalaimamani award by the Tamil Nadu Government. The then Governor Prabhudas Patwari and the then Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran presented him with the award.
On Nov 21, 2013, T.K. Radhakrishnan died and a programme was held in his memory by India International centre and Gayathri Fine Arts at India International Centre, New Delhi, where G. Raghu Ram gave a flute recital.