T. N. Krishnan

Trippunithura Narayana Krishnan (6 October 19282 November 2020) was an Indian Carnatic music violinist. Along with Lalgudi Jayaraman and M. S. Gopalakrishnan he was considered part of the violin-trinity of Carnatic music. He was awarded the Madras Music Academy's Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 1980. He was also the recipient of the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour, in 1992, and earlier, the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour, in 1973.

Early life Krishnan was born on 6 October 1928, in Tripunithura, Kerala to A. Narayana Iyer and Ammini Ammal. He learnt music from his father and was 11 when he performed at his first violin concert in 1939 in Trivandrum. His father continued to teach him until his death. Recounting his early years, Krishnan mentioned that he would play the instrument continuously for over three hours at katcheris, or classical music performances, and they would "perform in temples, in landlords’ houses or at weddings." Reviews of his performance called out the importance that he gave to expressional restraint. Reviewing one of his performances in 2004, The Hindu said that in his generation of musicians, he was one of the few instrumentalists who provided a nostalgic experience of a bygone era in the minds of his listeners. He was a regular performer during the annual Margazhi music season at the Madras Music Academy including a dedicated morning slot on Christmas Day. He travelled extensively on musical tours all over the world.

Awards and titles Krishnan was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1974 and was a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship from the academy in 2006. He received the Sangeetha Kalanidhi titular award in 1980 from the Madras Music Academy. He received the Sangeetha Kalasikhamani award in1999 from the Indian Fine arts Society, Chennai. He was also the Asthana Vidwan at the Tirupathi Devastanam.

Grammy's honoured him with 'In Memoriam' mention of International musicians in March 2021

Personal life Krishnan was married to Kamala Krishnan and had two children, Viji Krishnan Natarajan, and Sriram Krishnan. Both Viji Krishnan Natarajan and Sriram Krishnan are well-known violinists.

Discography Melodious Strings of the Indian Violin (1985) Music is Music – Jugalbandi (with Ustad Amjad Ali Khan) (1991) Sruti Sandhya 2 (with T. S. Nandakumar)