Basya Schechter

Schechter was romantically involved with Rabbi Shaul Magid beginning in 2013, though their relationship ended in 2016.

Schechter is a cantor and musical director for the Romemu congregation. She has also been the cantor at the Fire Island Synagogue since 2012. She previously played percussion during Friday night services at B'nai Jeshurun Synagogue on the Upper West Side. In 2015, she, Suzanne Vega, and Roma Baran provided vocal support at a Passover seder hosted by Laurie Anderson at Russ & Daughters. Later that year, she appeared with writer Shulem Deen at a Jewish Week-sponsored literary forum at Congregation Rodeph Sholom on the subject of leaving Orthodoxy. She is a former arts fellow at the Drisha Institute.

In 2011, she released Songs of Wonder, an album of musical arrangements of the Yiddish-language poetry of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. She had been introduced to Heschel's poetry in 2005 after receiving a volume of it from a congregant at B'nai Jeshurun. Prior to its release, the album was premiered at Tzadik's Radical Jewish Culture Festival.

Schechter released her debut solo album, Queen's Dominion, in 2004 on Tzadik Records. The album was conceived by Schechter and percussionist Jarrod Cagwin and was produced by her and Albert Leusink (Swingadelic, System Band).

Schechter formed Pharaoh's Daughter in 1995 while in college. The band's name is a reference to Schechter's given name, a Yiddish variant of the Biblical daughter of Pharaoh, Bithiah. They debuted in 1999 with the independent album Daddy's Pockets and were signed to Knitting Factory Records later that year. The label then released the band's second album, Out of the Reeds (2000). Their most recent album, Dumiyah, was released in 2014.

Schechter was born to an Orthodox Jewish family and grew up in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Her father was in a short-lived barbershop quartet managed by Don Kirshner during the 1950s; after the group's demise, he returned to school and became an accountant. During Basya's childhood, he often sang with her on Shabbat and exposed her to Israeli artists like Tzvika Pick, Shimi Tavori, and Kaveret. Her parents divorced when she was nine; she went to live with her father, who remarried when she was 14. She has said that due to her chaotic family life, she was less restricted than others in her community.