T. M. Krishna

T. M. Krishna
T.M. Krishna at Rajarani Music Festival, Bhubaneswar, Odisha in Jan 2016
Background information
Also known as	TMK
Born	(1976-01-22) January 22, 1976 Chennai, India
Origin	Tamil Nadu, India
Genres	Indian classical
Occupation(s)	Singer, Teacher, Lecturer, Author
Years active	1988–present
Website	http://www.tmkrishna.com

T.M. Krishna (Thodur Madabusi Krishna, born in 1976) is a Carnatic music vocalist. He was exposed to the south Indian classical music at an early age. His first concert was at the Spirit of Youth series organized by the Music Academy, Chennai (India). T.M. Krishna was born in Chennai on January 22, 1976. His father was a businessman in the automobile industry and his mother has founded several educational institutions, most recently a school for tribal children (Vidyavanam) which caters to over 300 children.^[1]

Krishna's mother learnt from Krishna's guru (teacher) B. Seetharama Sharma who on noticing Krishna's interest in music, started teaching him when he was six years old. Krishna had his schooling in The School KFI, an institution founded and run by the Krishnamurti Foundation which influenced his perceptions and outlook towards life, a fact mentioned by him in various interviews. He received his B.A. degree in economics from Vivekananda College, affiliated college of the University of Madras. Married to Sangeetha Sivakumar, who is also a Carnatic musician, on November 7, 1997, he has two daughters by name Arya and Anantha, and lives in Mylapore.

On July 27, 2016, he was honoured with the Ramon Magsaysay Award.^[2]

Early life

Krishna's mother was a carnatic music graduate, and his father T.M. Rangachari had an ear for carnatic classical music.^[3] His grand uncle T.T. Krishnamachari (former Indian finance minister and an industrialist) was one of the founding members of the Madras Music Academy.^[4]

After tutelage under Bhagavathula Seetharama Sharma, Krishna underwent special Ragam Thanam Pallavi grooming under Chingleput Ranganathan. He also received advanced training from the late Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer for more than seven years.

Publications

A Southern Music (2013)

In 2013, he authored a book 'A Southern Music – The Karnatik Story' and it was released by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and Chairman of Kalakshetra, Gopalkrishna Gandhi.^[5] It discusses the philosophy, aesthetics, sociology and history of Carnatic music. The book was published by Harper Collins.

Voices Within (2007)

Bombay Jayashri, T.M. Krishna and Mythili Chandrasekhar published the first-ever coffee table book on Carnatic Music in January 2007. The book is a labor of love and pays tributes to seven Carnatic music maestros. The first copy of the book was received by the former President of India, Abdul Kalam at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. This book was later translated in Tamil and published by Ananda VIkatan Publications in the year 2011.

Professor P. Sambamoorthy (1999)

Commemorative volume containing brief life sketch and several unpublished and some speeches delivered at various conferences brought out on the occasion of the birth centenary of P. Sambamoorthy, a musicologist, teacher, researcher.

Articles

On Society, Culture, Politics and Religion

• A Matter of Faiths – 2 August 2013, Teacher Plus
• India Can Do Better than Modi or Rahul – 22 April 2013, Op-ed, The Hindu ^[6]
• Conversations Flow, Ideas Don't – 24 November 2012, Op-ed, The Hindu ^[7]
• Power flows from the back seat of a car – 21 July 2012, Sunday Magazine, The Hindu ^[8]
• Beyond the Scars – 22 October 2011, National, The Hindu ^[9]
• Death of a Humane Society? – 15 May 2010, The Hindu ^[10]
• Culture in One’s Life – Jan 2008, Journal of the Krishnamurti Schools
• A Crisis of Culture – 7 May 2006, Sunday Magazine, The Hindu

On Music, its Practice, Musicians, History and Future

• MS Subbulakshmi -India's Most Misunderstood Musician (Cover Story)- October,2015, Caravan^[11]
• Singing Cinema – 18 October 2013, Frontline
• What Is Art Music – 9 February 2012, Friday Review, The Hindu
• A Living Legend...and his Music Today – 2012, Sruti Magazine
• Article on Violinist Prof. V.V. Subramaniam – 2012, Sruti Magazine
• A Journey with Kishori Tai – 3 September 2011, Sunday Magazine, The Hindu
• The Charisma of Composers – 30 January 2011, Sunday Magazine, The Hindu
• Centered Upon Centuries – 23 January 2011, Sunday Magazine, The Hindu
• Celebrating Unheard Melodies – 16 January 2011, Sunday Magazine, The Hindu
• Rhythms of Time – 9 Jan 2011, Sunday Magazine, The Hindu
• Decoding the Gramaraga – 2 January 2011, Sunday Magazine, The Hindu
• Celebrating Unheard Melodies – 26 December 2010, Sunday Magazine, The Hindu
• Poetics of performance - 11 December 2010, Sunday Magazine, The Hindu
• Emergence of the Desi Tradition – 19 December 2010, Sunday Magazine, The Hindu
• The Influence of His Music – 2009, G.N. Balasubramaniam Centenary Commemorative Volume
• Between Tradition and Evolution – 20 December 2009, Sunday Magazine, The Hindu
• Dawn of a New Era – 16 December 2007, Sunday Magazine, The Hindu
• An Unequal Music - 4 November 2007, Sunday Magazine, The Hindu
• It’s Sampradaya Unlimited – 5 April 2001, The Hindu
• The Religious Connection – 3 December 2000, Folio, The Hindu
• Those Songs We Sing From Our Soul (Coauthored) – 20 January 2007, Hindustan Times
• Art Theft (Coauthored) – 2009, Indian Express

Initiatives

Chennai Poromboke Paadal^[12][13]

The Chennai Poromboke Paadal music video was released on January 14, 2017 on YouTube. An initiative by T.M.Krishna and environmental activist Nityanand Jayaraman - the Tamil song was written by Kaber Vasuki and composed by R. K. Shriramkumar, and the video was directed by Rathindran Prasad. The video featured Krishna performing in and around the Ennore creek and highlighted the environmental damage done to the creek by the power plant in that region. The music video trended on YouTube India for a week after its release becoming the first Carnatic song to trend on YouTube. The song's title contained the word "Poromboke" which formerly meant land of the commons but has become a popular swear word. The music video also garnered attention for combining Tamil slang dialect with carnatic music. The song is a raga-malika and is based on the ragas Anandabhairavi, Begada, Hamir Kalyani, Devagandhari, Salaga Bhairavi and Sindhu Bhairavi.

References

• Iyengar,B.R.C., "Dulcet Tones", Kalasagaram, 2004
• Kumar, S. Vinaya, "Seasoned Musician", The Hindu
• Collection of T.M.Krishna songs On HI5SONGS
• Nisshanka, "TM Krishna: Bravado and Loudness", Chennai Online
• SVANUBHAVA http://www.svanubhava.org/
• Matrka Website
• Jnanarnava Website
• Other news reviews and articles