About Whole Music LLC

Whole Music’s Founder and President Isaac Raz is driven by the principle that musical practice is essential for the well being of the whole person.  The goal is make music more accessible to the individual, and to broaden public awareness and appeal. 

It was from that basic vision that Whole Music LLC was founded to provide a platform to break some boundaries and conventional wisdoms, and to bring a philosophy and methodology engaging each student with a unique mix of activities to make the practice relevant to that individual.

We believe that teaching, performing, and composing, are all integrated. When one performs it can be said one is “teaching” the audience, when one composes it can be said one is “teaching” the musicians, and the musical community at large.

Whole Music LLC has since expanded into composition, arranging, scoring, production, and live performance, all still encompassing the idea that a holistic approach to music benefits the individual, project, or company.

About Whole Music LLC

About Isaac Raz

Raz was born into a distinguished musical family. His mother, Rivka Raz, was a leading figure in the early Israeli musical theatre scene. His father, Moshe Raz, was a stage manager for major theatrical productions in Israel and a longtime music educator. He is the nephew of Israeli folk composer Emanuel Zamir.

Raz began piano studies at age four using the Suzuki method. At nine, he studied classical piano in Tel Aviv under Anna Feinstein for six years. As a teenager, he was accepted to Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts, Israel’s premier arts high school, where he studied music theory, composition, and performance.

Following his family’s relocation to Maui, Hawaii, Raz was introduced to jazz at age fourteen. He studied improvisation with David Bass and continued classical piano studies with Ruth Murata. He attended Seabury Hall, studying composition and performance under Mark Kennedy.

During his senior year, his family moved to Scottsdale, Arizona. Raz completed high school there and studied music under Philip Strange at Arizona State University.

Raz attended Berklee College of Music, majoring in jazz composition and music synthesis. He studied arranging and composition under Herb Pomeroy and received the Duke Ellington Award. Concurrently, he pursued studies in music technology during the formative years of MIDI, digital sampling, and internet-based production.

After graduating from Berklee, Raz returned to New York City, where he established a boutique recording and production studio. He produced and arranged three albums for his mother: a collection of Israeli folk songs, Hebrew adaptations of Broadway standards, and Sephardic melodies arranged in original settings—projects that helped define his distinctive orchestral and harmonic language.

In 1993, Raz composed the score for the Emmy Award–winning documentary Pioneer Women, directed by Nancy Cooperstein.

As a keyboardist, producer, and arranger, he contributed to Impressions of Miles Davis by Teo Macero and performed on recordings by R&B artist Joe.

In 2013, Raz founded Whole Music LLC with colleague Steven Felsenfeld. The organization was created to provide holistic music instruction integrating emotional, cognitive, and physical dimensions of learning. Its pedagogical philosophy emphasizes music as a complete language—combining theory, improvisation, composition, and individualized practice. Raz has articulated the view that musical practice is essential to the wellbeing of the whole person, and is integral to development and self-actualization.

Raz earned a Master of Arts in Teaching from Lehman College, part of the City University of New York system, with an emphasis in vocal instruction. He completed student teaching at Celia Cruz High School of Music and was subsequently employed at Hunter College High School, teaching chorus and general music for grades 7–12.

He also taught music for grades K-8 at P.S. 37 in the Bronx and worked as a substitute teacher in the New York City public school system, while continuing to expand his private studio and educational programming throughout New York and Westchester County.

Beginning in 2013, Raz studied extensively with Barry Harris, attending workshops in New York and Europe and assisting in instruction. Following Harris’s death in 2022, Raz founded an online educational platform dedicated to documenting and teaching Harris’s bebop methodology. He continues to teach this approach both independently and through Barry Harris Institute of Jazz in New York and internationally.

In 2023, Raz relocated to East Harlem (Spanish Harlem) with his wife, Annalissa Vicencio, a New York–licensed creative arts therapist (music therapy, psychodrama) and doctoral candidate in rehabilitative sciences at New York University. He continues to operate his recording, arranging, and orchestration studio in New York City.

Raz orchestrated and co-produced Retreat to Beauty for trumpeter Antoine Drye, which was named one of DownBeat Magazine’s Best Albums of 2024.

He co-authored The Bob Mover Jazz Lexicon (Sher Music) with Bob Mover and serves as orchestrator for Mover’s forthcoming orchestral album State of the Heart.

Additional projects include a jazz setting of Shakespeare’s sonnets (Sonnets and the Self), collaborations with Grammy Award–winning producer Tony Prendatt, and string arrangements for Vanessa Williams’s recording of “La Costa,” which reached No. 25 on Billboard’s Smooth Jazz Airplay chart.

Raz is also producing the second album of Sono Wabi Sabi, his collaborative project with drummer and co-composer Michael Shapiro, and continues to perform and record with various ensembles in the New York City area.