Ramakrishnan Murthy is an American-born Indian Carnatic vocalist based in Chennai, renowned for his adherence to tradition, emphasis on lyrical depth, melodic purity, and emotional bhava in performances.^[1] Trained in the rigorous styles of the Dhanammal school, he has emerged as a leading figure among younger-generation artists, regularly featuring in major music festivals like the annual Madras Music Season and receiving prestigious national awards for his contributions to classical music.^[2][3]Born December 22, 1989, in the United States, Murthy began his Carnatic vocal training at the age of eight in 1997 under Smt. Padma Kutty in Irvine, California.^[1] He pursued higher education alongside music, earning a Bachelor of Science in Informatics from the University of California, Irvine, in 2011.^[1] Following his initial guidance from Kutty, he received advanced training starting in 2001 from vidwan Delhi P. Sunder Rajan, and later drew influences from notable gurus including Vaikom Jayachandran, Vairamangalam Lakshminarayanan, C.R. Vaidyanathan, Chingleput Ranganathan, K.V. Narayanaswamy, and K.R. Subramanyam; since 2010, he has been under the tutelage of violinist R.K. Shriramkumar.^[1][3]Murthy made his arangetram (debut performance) in 2003 at a house concert in California and moved to Chennai in 2011 to immerse himself fully in the Carnatic music ecosystem.^[1] He has performed extensively across India and internationally, showcasing an expansive repertoire that prioritizes rare kritis, intricate ragam-tanam-pallavi expositions, and seamless raga transitions, as demonstrated in his 2024 concert at Sri Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha where he rendered a poignant Todi alapana and a multi-raga tanam.^[2] His style reflects restraint and devotion, avoiding excessive virtuosity in favor of interpretive depth.^[2]Among his notable accolades, Murthy received four consecutive Outstanding Vocalist awards from the Madras Music Academy in the early 2010s, followed by the Yogam Nagaswamy Award for Best Senior Vocalist in 2016 at the age of 27—one of the youngest recipients—and the Senior Outstanding Concert prize in 2024.^[1] In 2023, he was honored with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for Carnatic vocal music, recognizing his potential as a torchbearer of the tradition.^[3] Beyond performing, he actively teaches and maintains an online archive of concert song lists to document and preserve Carnatic compositions.