Native of Miami, FL, violinist, improviser and educator Trina Basu was trained in Western Classical, Indian Classical and Jazz styles. Her expressive sound explores cultural and musical threads from her Indian and North American roots.
She co-leads the chamber ensemble, Karavika whose albums Sunrise and Of Earth and Sky feature music inspired by classical and folk traditions from South Asia and America. Other projects include an improvisational violin duo with Carnatic Classical violinist, Arun Ramamurthy and her performance work with Brooklyn Raga Massive where she also serves as an Artistic Director. As a side women, Trina performs regularly with Women’s Raga Massive, A.R. Balaskandan's Akshara, Imani Uzuri's Hush Harbor Opera, Adam Rudolph's Go: Organic Orchestra, Sameer Gupta's A Circle Has No Beginning, Neel Murgai Ensemble and others. She has shared the stage with notable artists around the world, including Urban Bush Women, Mos Def, Gil Scott Heron, Ed Sheeran, Marc Cary, Reggie Workman, Terri Lyne Carrington, Dr. Mysore Manjunath, and Krishna Bhatt.
Trina received the Indo-Shastri Canadian Institute Fellowship in 2007 to study Carnatic Classical violin in Chennai, India with Vittal Ramamurthy and Padma Shankar, both exponents of the Lalgudi Jayaraman school. Other mentors have been violinist Su Fink, sitarist Nalini Vinayak of the Senia Gharana, trumpet player Longineu Parsons and violinist John Blake, among many others. Trina is a graduate of Florida State University in Music Therapy and is trained in the Suzuki approach from School for Strings in NYC. Her work as a Music Therapist with hospitalized children and adults, Alzheimers and stroke patients has given her deep insight to the powers of music and how transformative it can be. As an educator she has taught widely in NYC public schools to underserved children, led summer camps, group classes and workshops, and has run her own private music studio for over 15 years.