Basya Schechter is most known for her group, Pharaoh’s Daughter, a 7 piece world music ensemble that travels effortlessly through continents, key signatures, and languages with a genre-bending sound. Basya’s earthy, soulful voice rings out over textured instrumentation that forms a vibrant collage of East and West, providing the soundtrack for a harmonious vision of peace and diversity. She is also the Hazzan and musical director of Romemu Brooklyn inspired by the fast growing, progressive, spiritually adventurous community on New York’s Upper West Side where she served for 9 years prior, as well as the the spiritual leader of the Romemu Brooklyn Satellite Community. In the summer, Basya is a the Cantor for Fire Island Synagogue, a smaller, flip flop wearing community co-led with banjo playing Rabbi, writer and scholar, Shaul Magid. Pharaoh’s Daughter’s last recording “Dumiya” (7th album) in 2014 was reviewed by Leonard Cohen: “Listening to Dumiyah in the car yesterday with a Turkish friend, such a delight — the groove, the purity, the skill — so fresh and yet so familiar as the work of the heart always is.” Basya’s most recent creative work is with Darshan, a musical midrash project in collaboration with esoteric indie rapper/poet Eden Pearlstein (aka ePRHYME). In 2017 Darshan released Raza, a radical reimagining of the traditional prayers and mystical poetry recited on Friday night to welcome the Sabbath Bride. In the spirit of “It takes a Village.” She is raising her son as a single mother, and imagining new collaborations on her creative path.
