Nedunuri Krishnamurthy was recently felicitated by the chief patron of the Andhra Music Academy, K. Sivananda Murty, after the inauguration of the five-day Vaggeyakara fest held last week at Kalabharathi.
Speaking on the occasion, the Guruji, as he is popularly known, said, “Nedunuri is felicitated today neither because he was conferred Hon. Doctorate by B. R. Ambedkar Open University nor because he was honoured by the prestigious Shanmukhaananda Sabha in Mumbai recently. It is because after making his debut onstage at the age of eighteen in 1945, he successfully strived to emulate the example set by the great vocalists like Arayakudi, Musiri and G.N.B..”
Sivananda went on to describe Nedunuri's second major appearance on for stage, for Saraswathi Gana Sabha at Kakinada, where he was made to sing in place of the eagerly-awaited flute recital by T.R. Mahalingam, who could not make it at the last minute. Warranting recognition of his ability with a paradigmatically evolved diction of his own, he opted to be the president of the annual conference of the renowned Madras Music Academy in 1991, and received the title Sangeetha Kalanidhi that goes with it.
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“Many more laurels came his way in his career that spans nearly 65 years now,” said Sivananda. “Today he belongs to the rare genre of Carnatic vocal exponents, for his successful effort in making every concert of his a warm treat of the exquisite amalgam of lyrical and musical beauty in the compositions of Vaggeyakaras. Hence, honouring Nedunuri is not only a most befitting but also an auspicious event with which the festival commences today,” he concluded.
The Sangeetha Kalanidhi was then warmly felicitated.