Born in Sankaraguptam, East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh on 6th July 1930 and trained under 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 8, Balamuralikrishna gave his first full-fledged concert at a Thyagaraja Aradhana in Vijayawada. Musunuri Suryanarayana Murty Bhagavatar, a distinguished Harikatha performer, saw the musical talent in the child and gave the prefix 'Bala' 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.
He played the role of Narada in the Telugu film Bhakta Prahalada. It was later dubbed into Tamil, Hindu and Kannada. His first song is also for a Telugu film Sati Savitri. He also scored music for the 1st Sanskrit film Adi Sankarar.
With more than 25,000 concerts to his credit, he has been honored with some of India's topmost awards, including the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan. He was made Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 2005 which is the recognition of significant contributions to the arts, literature, or the propagation of these fields.
He is credited with being the only Carnatic musician to have received three national awards — Best Playback Singer, Best Music Composer and Best Music Director. He has collaborations with the top Hindustani musicians like Bhimsen Joshi, Kishori Amonkar, Hariprasad Chaurasia.
Relive some of his amazing songs!
A Tribute to the Man with the Magical Voice Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna garu!
