Well known Indian Carnatic vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, playback singer, composer and actor Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna (86) died this evening at his residence in Chennai. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, , India’s second-highest civilian honour, for his contribution towards Indian Art. He was made Chevalier of the Order des Arts et des Letters by the French Government in 2005.

Balamurali Krishna was born in Sankaraputam village in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. st] His father was a well-known musician and could play the flute, violin and the veena and his mother was an excellent veena player. His mother died when he was an infant and Balamuralikrishna was raised by his father.

He started his career at the age of six. Up to the present time, he has given over 25,000 concerts worldwide. He accompanied Pandit Bhimsen Joshi. He also gave jugalbandi concerts with Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and Kishori Amonkar, among others. He is also known for popularising the compositions of Sri Bhadrachala Ramadasu and Sri Annamacharya.

He has been invited to give concerts in many countries, including the US, Canada, UK, Italy, France, Russia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Middle East and many more. Apart from his native tongue, Telugu, his works also include ones in other languages like Kannada, Sanskrit, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali and Punjabi.

Balamuralikrishna has composed over 400 compositions in various languages like Telugu, Sanskrit, Kannada and Tamil. His compositions range from Devotional to Varnams, Krithis, Javalis and Thillans, in all the fundamental 72 melakartha ragas to film music. He made his acting debut with Bhakta Prahlada (1967) under AVM Productions as Narada and has acted in various films.