Ro'i Raz  is a multi-faceted guitarist, composer

and an oud player, who's work spans from

third stream to ethno jazz, original folk-rock to

sacred texts.

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Born in the U.S. but upraised on an Israeli Kibbutz, Ro'i persued his bachelor in

JazzGuitar at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy,

continuing to further exploring the limits and margins of Jazz,

Classical and Ethnic music at the New England Conservatory

Third Stream department, earning his M.M under the supervision of

Ran Blake, John Abercrombie, Peter Row, Hankus Netsky

and others.  Based on materials from his graduate recital at NEC,

Ro'i released his debut recording "Between The Suns" (Sachimai, 2003)

containing mainly original music , written to ensemble of flute, clarinet

violin, cello, bass clarinet, rythm section and Roi's guitar, accompanied

by sacred poetry read by Joel Sindelar . 

 in 2005, After few years of playing and recording in the Boston area, performing

with his own ensembles and collaborating with various musicians and groups,

 Ro'i and his family returned to Israel, were he formed his next group, 

Kedma Yama, that icluded his younger brother Arnan Raz on Tenor Sax .

By that time, Roi's writing corresponded more with middle eastern idioms,

incorporating rythms and modes, to meet his harmonic world. 

The group played 2008's Red Sea Jazz Festival  and other important venues

in Israel, and recorded Roi's second title, To The Desert To The Fields . 

In 2009 Ro'i initiated the forming of Ensemble Tehilim , along with fellow musicians Baruch Braner, Yuval Mesner, Gilad Ephrat and Oren Frid.  The mission of the group was to set original music to the ancient hebrew psalms. The Ensemble put up a show conatainig 12 chosen psalms, premiered at Beit Avi-Chai in Jerusalem, that summer.  The group continued to perform around the country in concerts and music festivals, and released their cd  "To You My Heart Has Spoken", in 2013. 

Another project of Ro'i is The Jezreels, a group he started with his youth mate, Daniel De-Jong, to record and perform Ro'i's original songs in hebrew, also revealing a more rockish face of Ro'i on the electric guitar. 

At some point Ro'i picked up the Oud, the fretless arab lute, that inspired him for years while playing the classical guitar.  Starting of on an instrument built by his late friend, bassist Udi Kajmirski, with whom he used to perform jazz standarts,  Ro'i began to employ the oud on his on projects, as well as recording and performing on other projects such as Boaz Davidoff's 'Kotzrim' band. 

Roi is also involved in educational work that includes all-style guitar instruction, composition, ensembles guidance, and Oud first step instruction. 

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