His book ‘ Reshaping Art’ published by Aleph Book Company in 2018, asks important questions about how art is made, performed and disseminated and addresses crucial issues of caste, class and gender within society while exploring the contours of democracy, culture and learning. He has co-authored Voices Within: Karnatik Music – Passing on an Inheritance, a book dedicated to the greats of Karnatik music. His long-form essay 'MS Understood', for The Caravan was featured in The Caravan Book of Profiles, as one of their “twelve definitive profiles.” It has been translated into Tamil and published as a book Katrinile Karainda Tuyar by Kalachuvadu Publications. For this he was awarded the 2014 Tata Literature Award for Best First Book in the non-fiction category. He has been part of inspiring musical productions and collaborations that are unique and unusual aesthetic conversations between art forms and communities across social spectrums. His path-breaking book A Southern Music – The Karnatik Story, published by Harper Collins in 2013 was a first-of-its-kind philosophical, aesthetic and socio-political exploration of Karnatik music. This ability to draw in new listeners and communicate the magnificence of Karnatik music without intimidating them with references to the famed exclusivity of its form or its historical position as a rarefied genre, is a rare instance of transcending the structures of a limiting ecosystem while being located within it. Simultaneously original, subtle, traditional and innovative, this is an example of a musician’s ability to expand the territory of its influence. Maintaining the exacting standards of the form as a musician and also as a writer, researcher and critic, TM Krishna has widened the reach of Karnatik music among new and eclectic audiences in India and abroad. His concerts are able to please the most fastidious of rasikas as well as a community of musicians across generations while also being infused with his own distinctive aesthetic choices and expression.

Seetharama Sarma, Chengalpet Ranganathan and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Krishna’s concerts reflect his rigorous learning as a wholly classical musician. In his primary identity as a Karnatik musician TM Krishna has had a brilliant and early start since the early 90s, going on to add more dimensions and ingenuity to his musicianship while simultaneously broadening his artistic concerns with every passing year.

The pursuit of a rigorous and multivalent art form like Karnatik music presents many intersections for a contemporary practitioner. TM Krishna will also deliver a lecture in the same space on the following day ( more details). Please register to join us for a workshop on musical technique with renowned musician, writer and activist TM Krishna.

Sebastian and Sons by T.M. Krishna