Interview on Songs of Desire and Pharaoh's Daughter
A recent radio interview about her album Songs of Desire, the band Pharaoh's Daughter and her work for John Zorn's Tzadik label.
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Interview · Neon Jazz · 2026Interview on Songs of Desire and Pharaoh's Daughter
29 minTeacher
Meet Basya Schechter.
Basya Schechter
Basya Schechter grew up in the Hasidic community of Borough Park in Brooklyn and founded the band Pharaoh's Daughter in 1995, while she was a student at Barnard College. She sings and plays oud, guitar, saz and percussion, and the band's sound mixes Jewish song and klezmer with folk and Middle Eastern music. Her solo album Songs of Wonder sets the Yiddish poems of Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Kabbalachia, made with Shaul Magid, sets the Kabbalat Shabbat liturgy to Appalachian old-time music. She serves as cantor and music director at the Romemu congregation in New York, and as cantor at the Fire Island Synagogue.
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Concealment & the hidden light
Kabbalah
The Jewish mystical tradition centred on hidden dimensions of scripture and the nature of the divine, often explored through symbolic systems such as the Tree of Life.
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