M S Gopalakrishnan

Award-winning Indian classical violinist M S Gopalakrishnan was born in Mylapore, Chennai, on 10 June 1931, and studied both South and North Indian classical styles with his father, Parur Sundaram Iyer, giving his first performance at the age of eight. 

He played the violin for more than fifty years, as both soloist and accompanist, and toured Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Netherlands, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

He researched playing techniques for the South Indian (Carnatic) system of Indian classical music, developing particular fingering and bowing disciplines, and became one of three violinists considered the 'violin trinity' of South Indian classical music.

MSG died in Chennai on 3 January 2013, aged eighty-one.