About…
ARUN RAMAMURTHY is a violinist, composer and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. Rooted in South Indian classical Carnatic music, Arun is a versatile musician, performing internationally in both traditional Carnatic and Hindustani settings, as well as blurring genres with his own innovative projects like the acclaimed Arun Ramamurthy Trio and Nakshatra duo with violinist Trina Basu. Arun studied under the celebrated violinist brothers, Sri Mysore Nagaraj & Dr. Mysore Manjunath, the distinguished violinist Sri. Ananthakrishnan as well as many early years with western classical violinist Jim Mate.
He has shared the stage with luminaries like Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna, Sudha Ragunathan, Reggie Workman, Kenny Werner, Jamey Haddad, Amir ElSaffar, Hamid Drake, Martha Redbone, Yacouba Sissoko, Adam Rudolph, Lizz Wright, Subhankar Banerjee, Mashkoor Ali Khan, Awa Sangho, Roman Diaz, Melvis Santa and many more. Arun's music has brought him stages like Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Celebrate Brooklyn and many more.
He leads the Arun Ramamurthy Trio, an ensemble that brings a fresh approach to Carnatic classical repertoire and features Arun's original composition work. Praised by All About Jazz as “a beautiful, exotic, ear-opening listening experience" ART is about to release their 2nd studio album New Moon in September 2024 through Greenleaf Music. He also co-leads a violin duo project with wife and violinist Trina Basu, reimagining string chamber music through the lens of Carnatic, western chamber music and jazz. The duo released their debut studio album “Nakshatra'' in January 2022.
As a composer, Arun has created new works for his Trio (ART) and duo project with Trina Basu, scores for theatrical productions such as Tom Stoppard’s Indian Ink, for Indian classical dance, and for the pioneering musician's collective Brooklyn Raga Massive. Arun received Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works grant to compose his Trio’s upcoming release New Moon. He was also commissioned through New Music USA to compose original work for Malini Srinivasan's 'Appeasing Radhika', an ambitious project investigating Devadasi lives in Indian Classical performing arts.
Arun is a co-founder of Brooklyn Raga Massive, a genre-bending musicians’ nonprofit rooted-in and inspired-by the classical music of South Asia. In 2010, Arun created and produced Carnatic Sundays, a traditional and cross-genre concert series at the iconic West Village haunt, Cornelia Street Cafe. Throughout his career, Arun has curated and performed in hundreds of concerts bringing together music from all over the world.
Arun also is a dedicated educator, teaching Carnatic music privately to children and adult students, professional string players and instrumentalists from various genres. He conducts workshops and has held teaching-artist residencies working with student ensembles at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Brooklyn College’s Jazz & Big Band program, NYU, Yale University, Sarah Lawrence University, and many others.
