Music Academy letter 'reeks of arrogance': Music composer Ricky Kej backs Ranjani-Gayatri
In the ongoing row over TM Krishna being awarded Music Academy's prestigious award, Kej has now hit out at the Academy's 'unbecoming' stand against Carnatic vocalist duo Ranjani and Gayatri
If well-known Carnatic vocalist TM Krishna found a strong supporter in Chinmayi Sripadi in the unseemly Sangeetha Kalanidhi awardrow, which seems to have kicked up a storm in the Carnatic music world, Grammy award-winning music composer Ricky Kej seems to be backing the opposing camp led by vocalist duo Ranjani and Gayatri.
Posting a copy of The Madras Music Academy’s strongly-worded letter to Ranjani and Gayatri, Kej wrote on his X(formerly Twitter) handle, “I am absolutely no one to judge right and wrong, or who is deserving of the prestigious Sangita Kalanidhi award.”
And that he deeply admires everyone involved, and everyone who have won or close to winning. “But, I cannot deny that this letter (written by The Music Academy) reeks of arrogance, hatred and superiority. It hurts especially when directed against such amazing souls like @ranjanigayatri. I personally feel this letter is quite unbecoming of such a prestigious art institution,” he added.
Music Academy slams Ranjani and Gayatri's stand
On March 21, The Music Academy president N Murali had slammed Carnatic vocalists Ranjani and Gayatri's stand against TM Krishna calling it "slanderous, vituperative, in poor taste and unbecoming of artistes".
The duo had waged a war against The Music Academy when they declared that they will not attend the Academy's December annual music festival to protest against TM Krishna being awarded the Sangeetha Kalanidhi award.
However, Murali hit back saying he was shocked by their 'slanderous assertions and insinuations verging on defamation and its vicious tone' against a respected senior fellow musician and felt it was in "poor taste and unbecoming of artistes".
Murali said the award, the ‘highest accolade in Carnatic music’ was given to Krishna for “his excellence in music over a long career” and no 'extraneous factors' influenced the choice.
Highest honour for TM Krishna
Magsaysay Award winner and vocalist TM Krishna has been selected for The Music Academy's Sangita Kalanidhi award for the year 2024 along with Mohiniyattam exponent Neena Prasad, who was awarded the 'Nritya Kalanidhi'.
On receiving the award, TM Krishna had posted a thank you note for this "highest honour" and said music kept him "honest".
Vilified Carnatic music fraternity
In a detailed letter, Ranjani and Gayatri took to 'X' on March 20 explained why they were against TM Krishna. They said he has caused 'immense damage' to the Carnatic music world and has "wilfully and happily stomped over the sentiments of this community and insulted most respected icons like Tyagaraja and MS Subbulakshmi.”
In their letter, the famous vocalists wrote, "It's dangerous to overlook Mr TM Krishna’s glorification of a figure like EVR [‘Periyar’ EV Ramasamy] who, according to them, openly proposed a genocide of ‘brahmins’, repeatedly called/abused every woman of this community with vile profanity and relentlessly worked to normalise filthy language in social discourse'.
His actions have tried to spread a sense of shame in being a Carnatic musician…they wrote, and he has vilified the Carnatic music fraternity, they added.
For this reason they said that they have decided to withdraw from participating in the Music Academy’s conference 2024 and from presenting their concert on December 25.
“We made this decision as the conference would be presided over by TM Krishna,” they said.
Other Carnatic musicians like Vishakha Hari, Chitraveena Ravikiran, Triuchur Brothers too have boycott the Music Academy Conference over the selection of TM Krishna for the Sangeetha Kalanidhi award.