An ecstasy is a thing that will not go into words; it feels like music.
Mark Twain

We are proud to be able to offer The Karuna Ensembles. Originally formed as a 17 piece string orchestra for the wedding of Gina Torres and Laurence Fishburne, Karuna is a group of versatile orchestral musicians that can perform virtually any piece in any configuration.

In addition to an established Chamber Trio and String Quartet, we can add a variety of instruments to create customized ensembles. For example, when called upon to perform the afro-latin jazz standard "Afroblue", we wrote an original arrangement for Karuna that included a Conga and Flute. Often we add a guitar to a small ensemble to expand the classical repertoire to include contemporary songs. For a recent event we developed an hour of Italian Folk and Opera selections for twenty strings. It's all about making the music reflect a clients unique taste and passions.

"Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant job, sir. I just wanted to say how much I loved all of the music that was played. The orchestra, the DJ...the whole thing was absolutely killing. Thank you.”
Laurence Fishburne (October 2002)

The Karuna Ensemble can be contracted exclusively through John Ragusa music. We invite you to listen to some of the ensembles available on our music samples page.