Renowned Classical Singer Garimella Balakrishna Prasad Passes Away.

Obituary

In March 2025, renowned classical singer and former Asthana Vidwan of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) Garimella Balakrishna Prasad passed away in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh (AP). Born on 9 November 1948 in Rajahmundry, AP, he was a legendary figure in Indian classical music and made significant contributions to the field.


      - Garimella Balakrishna Prasad served as the court scholar of the famous hill shrine Tirumala Venkateswara Temple in Tirupati, AP.

      - He was a pioneer in composing and performing Annamacharya Sankeerthanalu across various Indian musical genres, including classical, semi-classical, light, and folk music, and composed tunes for nearly 1400 songs written by various poets, with almost 1,000 of these being Annamacharya Sankeertanas.

      - He achieved a remarkable feat by singing 300 keertanas non-stop and composing over 600 Annamayya keertanas.

Main Point :-   (i) With over 6,000 concerts under his belt, he was the lead singer at the historic "Laksha Galarchana" event, organized by Silicon Andhra at Secunderabad Parade Ground, Hyderabad, Telangana, which entered the Guinness Book of World Records.

      (ii) He was honored with the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2020 for his outstanding contributions to Indian classical music.

(iii) His passing leaves a significant void in the classical music world, and he will always be remembered for his immense contribution to the art form.

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