Violin Maestro TN Krishnan Dies at 92

Carnatic music violinist TN Krishnan died in his residence in Chennai on Monday. He was 92.

Although Krishna was in good health, he had complained of a sudden uneasiness and passed away in the evening, as per a report in The Indian Express.

The violin maestro is survived by his wife Kamala Krishnan, daughter Viji Krishnan and son Sriram Krishnan.

Condoling his death on Twitter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote that “his works beautifully encapsulated a wide range of emotions and strands of our culture”.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah also tweeted his condolences and wrote: “Saddened on the passing away of Violin maestro Shri TN Krishnan ji. As a gifted musician, TN Krishnan ji captured the imagination of several generations with his breathtaking compositions. My deepest condolences are with his family and followers. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.”

Born in Tripunithura in Kerala in 1928, the child prodigy learned music from his father A Narayana Iyer and was later mentored by Alleppy K Parthasarathy. He gave his first solo performance in Thiruvananthapuram at the age of 11 and shifted base to Chennai in 1942.

Krishnan was considered one of the three members of the violin trinity, along with Lalgudi Jayaraman and MS Gopalakrishnan. Besides being conferred with the Padma Shri (1973) and the Padma Bhushan (1992), he was also the recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1974) and became a Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship of the academy in 2006. In 1999, he received the Sangeetha Kalasikhamani Award given by the Indian Fine Arts Society, Chennai.

Krishnan also taught at the Chennai Music College and later became the dean of the School of Music and Fine Arts at the University of Delhi.

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Mourning his loss, noted singer and author TM Krishna told The Hindu: “None was as gifted as Krishnan when it came to capturing the essence, taste and life of ragas. He had clarity about what he thought was good music and he followed it unwaveringly.”

“His greatest assets are his understanding of ragas and conviction about music. Even though so many things changed over decades in the music world, he had the conviction about good music and would only offer that — if you like it you come to my concert. It is very difficult to have such a conviction and be successful,” Krishna told the publication.

On Twitter, people grieved for the loss of the violin maestro and shared video clips of his performances and recalled experiences of watching him perform.