Arun Ramamurthy is a versatile violinist, composer and educator based in NYC. A disciple of the celebrated Carnatic violinist brothers, Dr. Mysore Manjunath & Sri Mysore Nagaraj, Arun has become one of the countrys leading Indian Classical and crossover musicians. Growing up in New Jersey, he trained in both Indian and Western classical styles.
He has carved a niche for himself as a multifaceted artist, performing internationally in both traditional Carnatic and Hindustani settings as well as bridging genres with his own innovative projects. Arun has been fortunate to perform with esteemed artists such as Dr. Balamurali Krishna, Sudha Ragunathan, Anindo Chatterjee, T.N. Seshagopoloan, Mashkoor Ali Khan, Marc Cary, Awa Sangho among others. He leads the Arun Ramamurthy Trio, an ensemble that brings a fresh approach to age-old South Indian classical repertoire and raga inspired originals. Praised by All About Jazz as a beautiful, exotic, ear-opening listening experience the Trios debut album Jazz Carnatica was picked by NPRs New Sounds as a Top New Release.
As a composer, Arun has created new works for his Trio, for various Indian classical dance performances, and for the pioneering musician's collective Brooklyn Raga Massive. Recently, Arun was commissioned through New Music USA to compose original music for Malini Srinivasan's 'Appeasing Radhika', an ambitious project investigating Devadasi lives in Indian Classical performing arts.
Arun is a co-founder and Artistic Director of Brooklyn Raga Massive, a collective of forward thinking musicians rooted-in and inspired-by the classical music of India. He created the concert series Carnatic Sundays at Cornelia Street Caf, an iconic jazz venue in New Yorks West Village. As an educator, Arun teaches students ranging from beginners to professional musicians in Indian music performance, technique and theory. He has taught workshops on Indian classical music at music schools, universities, conservatories and summer music programs.
Karavika is a New York City based ensemble led by violinist Trina Basu and cellist Amali Premawardhana. As two artists with roots in India, Sri Lanka and North America, Trina and Amali aspire to discover and bring to light the music of their own cultural backgrounds as well as music from other parts of the world that has deeply inspired them. Drawing upon influences of nature, beauty, simple folk melodies and complex classical compositions, Karavika seeks to blend creative improvisations and arrangements with authentic traditions. They are joined by Perry Wortman on bass and collaborate with multiple Indian classical percussionists and other instrumentalists.