We did it as a side project to our day-to-day jobs but were able to accomplish quite a lot. We released over 60 video clips of Roy's original improvisations to our YouTube channel and got great feedback from users all over the world. We released 2 albums and still selling them. And we put together a live show called Constage where Roy and a group of three other talented musicians and a VJ performed and improvised live on stage in LA.

A few months ago Roy and I returned to Israel with our families and both he and I are already busy working on new ventures and projects. But we wanted to try and keep "The Vibe of Now" live in some capacity perhaps with an Israeli twist. 

So we are happy to announce that next week Roy will perform in the OzenBar in Tel Aviv, tracks from our YouTube channel (leaving some space for improvisation of course). VJ Eran Barnea (Constage's VJ) will add his visual effects.

When: January 6, 2011 at 20:30pm
Where: OzenBar – King George 48, Tel Aviv (map)
Tickets: 40 NIS – get them here

Should be very special. Hope to see you there.

Originally posted on Life Mashup 2.0 ]]> http://www.meydad.com/2010/12/28/roy-zu-arets-on-piano-live-in-tel-aviv-%d7%a8%d7%95%d7%a2%d7%99-%d7%96%d7%95-%d7%90%d7%a8%d7%a5-%d7%91%d7%9e%d7%95%d7%a4%d7%a2-%d7%a4%d7%a1%d7%a0%d7%aa%d7%a8-%d7%91%d7%aa%d7%9c-%d7%90%d7%91%d7%99/feed/ 0 http://www.meydad.com/2010/05/26/constage-live-you-have-to-experience-this-magical-concert/ http://www.meydad.com/2010/05/26/constage-live-you-have-to-experience-this-magical-concert/#comments Thu, 27 May 2010 05:22:47 +0000 JayMeydad http://www.meydad.com/?p=1489 The group now has a name – Constage and is preparing for its 2nd concert.

What is Constage: A group performing some of the pieces created by Roy Zu-Arets as part of & in the spirit of “The Vibe of Now” series. Together they create a musical & visual journey from Japan to Persia and form Jerusalem to the US.

Who is Constage:

• Roy Zu-Arets – piano, vocals
• Jen Kuhn – cello
• DJ Nikon – electronia & turn tables
• Omid Torbatian – Persian Ney and Percussion
• Eran Barnea – Visuals
• and the new addition, Vahid Bayat – Tar & Vocals

The first concert of Constage was in Marina Del Rey and it was magical. It is a musical & visual experience you have to experience. So, here are the details of the next show.

When: Saturday, June 5, 2010 at 8pm
Where: The Concert Hall at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills (map)

And finally, here’s a clip of what it looks and sounds like. Hope you could make it.

Posted via email from jaymeydad’s posterous

For the first time, we will be moving out of Roy’s studio and will have the first live concert of “Confessions of a Composer” / “The Vibe of Now” at a charming venue called Mariners Village in Marina Del Rey this coming Sat, April 17, at 6pm.

Address is: 4600 Marina Village Hall, Marina Del Rey, CA

In this concert, Roy will be performing live selected tracks from the “Confessions of a Composer” & “The Vibe of Now” series that we have been posting to YouTube. In addition, new tracks on stage with the guest artists, in the spirit of “The Vibe of Now”.

Guest artists include:
* Omid Torbatian – Master of the Persian Ney
* Jen Kuhn – Cello, Acoustic Guitar and Vocals
* DJ Naoki – Electronia
* VJ Eran Barnea

Opening band Omid Torbatian’s Trio playing authentic persian concert.

Note that the event will start on time since we have to end it by 10pm. The concert will be recorded & posted to our YouTube channel.

Posted via email from jaymeydad’s posterous

If you were looking for an original music album to treat yourself or give as a gift in the coming holidays just visit iTunes , Amazon or order as a physical CD.

In “Snowflakes” Roy played in his unique style, renditions to seasonal classics such as Silent Night, Joy to the World, Jingle Bells and others. The result is a charming album that uniquely convey the serenity, joy and magic of the season.

You might ask yourself what do two Jewish guys have to do with Christmas songs? Well, we don’t. But when we first listened to the melodies without reading the lyrics, we actually heard a wide variety of music styles that show we are all coming from the same roots, including Israeli folk (O Little Town Of Bethlehem), Sephardic Romanca (The First Noel), a Classical composition written by the great (Jewish) composer Felix Mendelssohn (Hark The Herald Angels Sing), Blues & Soul (O Christmas Tree). Plus, if you look closely at the snowflakes that are on the cover you will see that in the center of each one of them there is a Start of David. I noticed this only after Ken sent his final design, so I assume it was a sign from above that we are doing the right thing.

I know I am biased, but when Roy called me a few days after we finished recording all the tracks and said “I hardly listen to my complete albums after they are done but in this case I keep listening to the songs over and over”, I knew we created a very special product.

The beautiful artwork was designed by Ken Messenger who used to be on my team at at Snap and now runs his design studio. Highly recommended designer.

Here’s a version of Jingle Bells that we posted to our YouTube channel.

Let it snow.

The idea behind “The Vibe Of Now” is to create a musical micro-blogging experience – release of original compositions that are created in a spontaneous, immediate, unplanned and instant way and reflect what the composer is feeling at that moment. The entire production process is also very fast. We meet at Roy’s studio in Hollywood three times a week (Mon, Wed and Fri) for 1 hour. It takes us 45 minutes to record a piece, mix the video with stereo audio that we pull out of the recording console and publish the clip to YouTube.

Both of us have worked and released products that reached millions – I have done it in the internet space at Snap, JDate and ICQ and Roy has worked as a composer, pianist and producer with many artists, performed in prestigious halls in front of thousands and produced platinum and gold albums. But this small side project has its own magic and is very exciting for both of us. Users from all over the world send us their feedback on the music videos and how they touch them. Our YouTube channel metrics are growing week after week – the number of daily views, subscribers (now is a good time to become one), friends, comments and ratings.

A few days ago we reached a new major milestone with the release of Roy’s first solo piano solo album (after a 20 year career of playing, producing and composing with and for others) called “Confessions of a Composer”. The album features selected tracks from the first series Roy released to YouTube during the summer of 2009 plus a few bonus tracks recorded with guest musicians. You can buy the album on iTunes , Amazon or order as physical CD.

We are also about to put the “The Vibe Of Now” concert. It will be a very original and different show from a typical piano recitals, and it will feature the album pieces, variations on a theme of known songs but with some twist, and original compositions that will be composed during the concert together with the viewers similar to the process that happens at the studio. If you are interested in bringing Roy to your venue, university, tech-conference, town hall or your next corporate event, please contact us.

Next for us are a few additional mini projects:
* A special album for the holidays which is being finalized these days (Update: It is now live)
* Collaborations with some of LA’s finest musicians
* A 100% live session that we will stream to the web using UStream and twitter
* And probably a few more fun projects since the tools we have in our hands allow us to do almost anything and take it to the masses.

Last thing – this project would not exist without users’ feedback. So if you have one for us, a request, suggestion, media inquiry, touring/booking request or a testimony/album review, please contact us using this form or on twitter – royzuarets or jaym.

After all, it is not easy to do what he is trying to do given his background. He started playing piano at the age of 3 and began his professional music career at the age of 12 (!). In his early twenties he was already a busy music producer, composer and pianist in Israel. He played with many artists, produced mega hit records and concerts like Rita‘s “A Great Love” 4 times platinum album and tour, HaYehudim (The Jews) debut album called “Separate Reality”, one of Meir Banai’s albums and many others including Guy Zu-Aretz (his brother) upcoming album. He wrote scores for movies and theater and had a successful and busy career in the Israeli music industry. But then he decided leave everything behind and went after his dream – move to the US to become a musician in the premier league. He first spent a few years in New York where he attend Julliard & Mannes music academies, and then he moved to Los Angeles where he is trying break into the small, close group of Hollywood movies score writers. In the mean time, he is slowly establishing impressive milestones n the US which including producing Taking Back Sunday’s “Where you want to be?” platinum album, and writing MacHeads soundtrack, but he has not gotten to work on a really big movie since in Hollywood it is very difficult for a “nobody” to become “somebody”.

This might change though, very soon, thanks to the way he uses YouTube to share his talent, music and work process with the masses. Every morning, as part of his warm-up, he improvises melodies based on his mood and feelings. None of these melodies were composed before and he does not memorize notes – he “simply” plays the melody that is going in his head at that very moment. His studio neighbors, owners of a video production company, heard him play and suggested to video tape those short improvisations and publish them to YouTube as part of a documentary series called “Confessions of a Composer”. The videos are recorded using two iPhone 3GS phones, the sound is recorded separately using Roy’s studio equipment (thus the high quality), and then they mix and edit everything to a short video clip that gets posted to YouTube. This entire process happens 5 days a week, Mon-Fri.

I predict that it is just a matter of time until one of Roy’s improvisation videos will become a major hit on YouTube. Naturally, the variation on a popular songs tend to get more traffic and views (probably not enough views given the quality of these videos), like Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” (see embed below), Michael Jackson’s Earth Song and Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling. But the improvisations are even more fascinating to watch, as they truly show his qualities as a composer and pianist.

From what I have gathered from Roy, the amount of feedback he has been getting after a few weeks of daily videos submissions is unbelievable. This includes comments, ratings and many emails from YouTube viewers from all over the world. More than that, a well known Hollywood director who stumbled upon one of his videos and loved it, already came to meet Roy at his Hollywood studio.

So, here are two video clips that illustrate how talented and versatile he is. My recommendation is to subscribe to his channel as well as go back and watch all the videos uploaded since the project began on July 13th. You will get a daily injection of heavenly and inspiring music from such an extraordinary & gifted talent.