M. S. Gopalakrishnan Biography 
M. S. Gopalakrishnan was a legendary violinist from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. A recipient of many major honours including Padma Bhushan, Padma Sri, Kalaimamani, Sangeetha Kalanidhi and 1997 Sangeet Natak Akademi awards, he is widely regarded as one among the great three violin artists of Carnatic music in the 20th century. He along with Lalgudi Jayaraman and T. N. Krishnan forms the trinity of this musical form. He passed away on 3 January 2013 aged 82. He has given several solo performances apart from collaborations with other musicians and accompanist. His daughter Dr M. Narmadha is also a well-known name in this field.
The violin maestro, fondly called MSG was born on 10th June 1931 in Mylapore, Chennai into a family of musicians of Parur lineage. His ancestors belonged to Ernakulam, Kerala. He took formal learning in violin from his father Parur Sundaram Iyer, who was versed in both Carnatic and Hindustani music forms. MSG learnt both forms of music and did his arangettam at the age of 8. Since then, for the career spanning to more than 5 decades, he has given performances across the world, as a solo artist and accompanist. He has toured many foreign countries as an accompanist of leading vocalists - Omkarnath Thakur and D. V. Paluskar.
One of the most renowned names in solo violin recitals - along with his contemporaries Lalgudi G Jayaraman and T N Krishnan, his talents were once praised by great Swizz violinist Yehudi Menuhin. He developed his own "Parur style" fingering and bowing disciplines, and also one-finger playing and a thematic development on single-string octaves are his features. He was married to Meenakshi and had three kids of whom Narmadha and Suresh are violin artists.
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Updated: January 28, 2016
