Born 21st April 1929 to, Krishnan Ebrandiri and Kamalamma, ( Shivali Brahmins from Udupi), Govinda grew up in his family home at Tiruppunithura. His childhood was spent in and around the Poornathrayeesa temple, where his uncle was an Adhikari. After his third form in school, TKG completed Kavyabhushanam, a four year course in Sanskrit. TKG, with his natural flair for music, absorbed the songs which his sisters were learning. Soon he had a repertoire of 35 varnams and 50 krithis at the age of ten. Without any formal training, he enrolled for a competition in the Chitra Music Festival at Trivandrum and won the First prize and a gold medal much to the surprise of his family. Prof. R Srinivasan of the Travancore Broadcasting Corporation who happened to be one of the judges gave him chance to sing in AIR. Later TKG also became the first male playback singer to sing in the Malayalam film Nirmala in 1948, and was felicitated forthe same by Cochin Film Society before his demise. As a student of Central College of Carnatic Music Chennai, he came under the tutelage of legends like Tiruppamburam Swaminatha Pillai, Musiri Subramanya lyer, T Brinda, Mayavaram Krishna lyer, Chittoor Subramaniam, and Prof P Sambamurthy for theory. He took Mridangam as ancillary and attained proficiency in that also. He has accompanied on Mridangam, his Guru Musiri Subramanya lyer and T R Subramanyam who was his classmate in music college. He then came underthe direct tutelage of Musiri and thus belonged to the 5th generation of Thyagarajar's sishya parampara. He also had a couple of teaching stints, at the Govt. Music College, Madras, as a visiting professor at Annamalai University, and also in Singapore before he joined AIR Madras and later moved to Delhi as Chief Producer. As a true torch-bearer of the Musiri Bani, he has given lots of memorable concerts in India and abroad. The chaste, rich music soaked in classicism of his Guru Sri Musiri Subramanya lyer, was truly imbibed by him. Being an amazingly creative artist the amount of effortthatwent into each song, for embellishment was incredible. He had his pulse on the composer's feelings and hence the rendering demanded delicate and sophisticated handling. The meaning of the lyrics was brought out with careful pronunciation of the words laying stress on the right syllables. The same can be experienced in the varnams, and tillanas he has composed, the innumerable songs and hymns he has tuned and, immortalised by him as well as through MLV, KVN, his own students, the Bombay Sisters Saroja and Lalitha and several others. The Dasarnamas have been tuned so well that even a person who does not understand Kannada can i feel i the meaning when he sang them. He has set to music , many Dasar Namas, compositions of Annamacharya, Narayana Teerthar, Jayadeva, Subramanya Bharathi, Periasamy Thooran, Ambujam Krishna etc. He has also tuned several of Meera, Kabir, Surdas Bhajans and Tiruppugazh. He would always be remembered for his books. His monumental project of compiling and editing all the compositions of the Trinity, compositions of Swati Tirunal, and also his Varna Sagaram in diacritical Roman and Devanagari scripts with meaning in English, and SRGM notations in Roman scripts help to bridge, not only the language barrier, but also the generation gap, while preserving the essence and identity of the original that remain characteristically and traditionally Indian. A book on Purandara Dasa's compositions was the last he was working on before his demise in 2011. T.K.Govinda has tuned & popularised by rendering the following songs: - Baro Krishnaiya - VenkataChala Nilayam - BagavAnE KathaarulENam BagavAnE. To know more about TKG's book publications, you may contact Ganamandir Publications Mobile number 9444959220 through Whatapps or SMS. He has also won many awards. Ask any query, he was ever ready and happy to share his knowledge without holding anything back. He was always enthusiastic to discuss, debate and interact, and was willing to encourage anyone who wanted to learn music. His home was always open to his students. True to the Udupi tradition, none was allowed to go home without tasting his wife Hema's excellent snacks and tea. He was so humane that he would be the first to reach out if a musician or student needed help. His entire lifetime was dedicated to Carnatic music, his great passion right from childhood. Some of the Awardsand Titles Conferred on him Central Sangeeth Natak Academy award Sangita Kalanidhi Kanchi Kamakoti Pita Asthana Vidvan Gana Kala Tilaka Bangalore Sangita Sastra Ratnakara Swara Samrat , B M Trust Kolalampur Sangita Samrat BVB Coimbatore Saptagiri Sangita Vidvanmani Sangita Chudamani Sri Krishna Gana Sabha Nadakkanal Sangita Ratnakara Cleveland USA Sangita Acharya Bhuvaneswari Pitam Gayaka Sikamani Sangita Samrat Mangalore Sangita Sabha Hanumath Gana Siromani Mudra Award of Excellence Vivekananda National Award of Excellence Swaramurti V N Rao Memorial Award