Nedunuri Krishnamurthy Biography 
Nedunuri Krishnamurthy was a Carnatic vocalist from Kothapalli, Andhra Pradesh. A true legend of Carnatic music, he was named Asthana Vidwan of both Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams and Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham. A musician of high repute, a musicologist and a great guru, he has received numerous honours throughout his career. He made significant contributions in popularising saint Annamacharya's compositions, `Muddugare Yashoda' and `Nanati Bratuku' being the highlights. He has composed many beautiful pieces of Annamacharya using the ragas of Kurinji, Revathi etc. He contributed to Annamacharya Project of the TTD. His renditions were soulful and gamaka-rich.
He was born on 10 October 1927 in Kothapalli of Godavari district of present day Andhra Pradesh. Rama Murthy Panthulu and Vijayalakshmi were his parents. His father worked in the estate of the Raja of Pithapuram. Krishnamurthy was influenced by his mother who used to sing ashtapathis, keerthans and other forms of devotional music. He received initial training in Violin and Vocal from the Dwaram Narasinga Rao Naidu in the 1940s and completely switched on to vocals after become the student of Sripada Pinakapani in 1949.
Nedunuri Krishnamurthy has also worked as a faculty in music in many institutions and served as Principal of S. V. College of Music and Dance, Tirupati and many others. He retired as Principal of G.V.R Government College of Music and Dance, Vijayawada in 1985. A great teacher, his prominent disciples are Domada Chittabbayi, Garimella Balakrishna Prasad, Shobha Raju, Saraswati Vidyardhi and Malladi Brothers. In 1991 he was honoured with Sangeetha Kalanidhi award by the Madras Music Academy. He was presented the National Eminence Award by Vishaka Music Academy in 2006. He takes credit for setting to tune 108 Annamacharya compositions for Annamacharya Project of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, which are immensely popular today. He also wrote notations for those 108 compositions, in three volumes.
Published: N/A
Updated: March 12, 2016
