Sri C.S. Krishna Iyer

Sri C.S. Krishna Iyer was born in 1916, in Kalpathy, Palakkad. An eminent vocalist, composer, teacher and musicologist, he is one of the few great musicians who shunned the limelight and truly served the cause of music in many different ways. He was the disciple of musical giants like Ponnayya Pillai and T.S. Sabhesa Iyer.

Sri Krishna Iyer had immense knowledge of raga lakshanas and had lengthy discussions about this with his students as well as the experts committee at the Music Academy with equal interest. He was a great thinker and would share his musical thoughts with students for hours at a time. He would sometimes forget the time when he was involved in a lesson. Sri Krishna Iyer was the first principal of the Chembai Government Music College at Palakkad. He taught at the Swati Tirunal Music College in Tiruvanantapuram prior to this. He also taught many students at his residence in Kalpathy where he lived until his demise in 1999.

Sri Krishna Iyer was the first guru of Sri K.V.Narayanaswamy before the latter came under Sri Ariyakudi's tutelage. Sri KVN had tremendous respect for Sri Krishna Iyer throughout his life and would sing his compositions like "Mohanamuraleedhari" regularly in his concerts.

Sri Krishna Iyer has composed a few beautiful kritis like Ganesa in Gambheeranattai, Mohanamuraleedhari in Mohanam, Ambike Jagadambike in Reetigowlai and Varumo nin karunakataksham in Saranga, all in Malayalam. He was specially chosen by Sri Semmangudi as one of the tunesmiths for Swati Tirunal's compositions.

He composed many beautiful sangatis for the compositions of the Trinity too, and students would be asked to "polish" the kritis until they shone.

Recognition was late to come by but it did, in the form of the title "Sangeetakalacharya" from the Madras Music Academy and the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi Award.

Rajeswari had the immense fortune of learning from Sri CSK for nearly twelve years on a one-on-one basis.