CHENNAI: Acclaimed carnatic musician TM Krishna was conferred the ‘Sangita Kalanidhi’ title by well-known researcher and author David Shulman, the Renee Lang Professor of Humanistic Studies at Hebrew University, at the 98th conference and concerts of The Music Academy that concluded here on Wednesday.
Parassala Ravi and Geetha Raja were conferred the ‘ Sangita Kalaacharya’ title. Thiruvaiyyaru Brothers S Narasimhan and S Venkatesan, and violinist HK Narasimhamurthy received the TTK Award while Margaret Bastin received the Musicologist award at the function.
In his address after receiving the Sangita Kalanidhi title on Wednesday, Krishna thanked the people of Uroor Alcott Kuppam near Besant Nagar, besides his friends and family, since he said his life changed after he co-organised and performed at a music festival there around around 10 years ago.
The conferring of Sangita Kalanidhi title for the year 2024 to Krishna happened after a lot of twists and turns since the decision of the Music Academy to confer the title on him was not only criticised by a section of carnatic musicians but was also challenged in the courts, since some perceived his past remarks about carnatic singer MS Subbulakshmi as derogatory.
While the Madras High Court initially stayed the presentation of the mirror award in the late musician’s name - Sangita Kalanidhi MS Subbulakshmi Award - the stay was vacated by a division bench of the high court. He received the mirror award at the inauguration of the conference on December 15.
However, the Supreme Court later said, in an interim order, that the singer should not be recognised as the recipient of the award. The courts, however, did not prevent the conferring of Sangita Kalanidhi title.