This fine gentleman was my great-great-grandfather, but don't worry, I won't be starting my story there, and will only discuss professional stuff. I'll even shift to the third person:
Uri Smilansky was born and brought up in Israel where he studied the Recorder, Violin, Viola, Viola da Gamba and composition. Whilst there he won a number of competitions; including first prize in the Rishon le Tsion Symphony Orchestra's Young Composer's Competition, first prize in the Aviv Competition for Early Music, second prize in the Haifa International Recorder Competition and between 1994 and 2005 has won multiple scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, including the first of its prestigious grants for studying Early Music abroad. In Israel, he studied with Gershon Prensky, Drora Bruck, Lilach Levanon and Myrna Herzog, among others, taught recorder at the Petach-Tikva conservatoire, and coached ensembles in the Thekma-Yelin school for Music and the Arts. After completing the obligatory three-year military service (serving in the Excelling Musician Squad as a performer, teacher and arranger), Smilansky moved to Basel to study Vielle with Randall Cook and Recorder with Conrad Steinmann, Corina Marti and Luis Beduschi in the prestigious Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, from where he graduated with honours in 2005. During his studies and within the folds of the school, he acted as project manager and assistant project leader to Anthony Rooley, coaching a project of Renaissance polyphony, and covered absences of Crawford Young by teaching ‘Organum Purum’ improvisation.
Uri Smilansky was born and brought up in Israel where he studied the Recorder, Violin, Viola, Viola da Gamba and composition. Whilst there he won a number of competitions; including first prize in the Rishon le Tsion Symphony Orchestra's Young Composer's Competition, first prize in the Aviv Competition for Early Music, second prize in the Haifa International Recorder Competition and between 1994 and 2005 has won multiple scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, including the first of its prestigious grants for studying Early Music abroad. In Israel, he studied with Gershon Prensky, Drora Bruck, Lilach Levanon and Myrna Herzog, among others, taught recorder at the Petach-Tikva conservatoire, and coached ensembles in the Thekma-Yelin school for Music and the Arts. After completing the obligatory three-year military service (serving in the Excelling Musician Squad as a performer, teacher and arranger), Smilansky moved to Basel to study Vielle with Randall Cook and Recorder with Conrad Steinmann, Corina Marti and Luis Beduschi in the prestigious Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, from where he graduated with honours in 2005. During his studies and within the folds of the school, he acted as project manager and assistant project leader to Anthony Rooley, coaching a project of Renaissance polyphony, and covered absences of Crawford Young by teaching ‘Organum Purum’ improvisation.
Having met his wife-to-be in Basel, Uri followed her to the UK after the completion of their studies. Here, he completed a PhD on the French-style music of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries at the University of Exeter under the supervision of Yolanda Plumely and Giuliano di Bacco in 2010, followed by a post-doctoral position up to 2014 as part of the project 'The Works of Guillaume de Machaut: Music, Image, Text in the Middle Ages' also based there. 2014 also saw a stint as a Musician of the Globe in London's prestigious Shakespeare's Globe theater, followed in 2015 by a semester teaching Medieval Ear Training and Ensemble Class at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and designing and executing Shakespeare's Globe first Music in Early Modern Theater course, acting as Course Convener and Lead Tutor finding, composing and arranging music for two Globe events. 2016-2019 were dedicated to a teaching fellowship at King's College London , covering a period of leave for Emma Dillon. He is currently a member of of the project 'Music and Late Medieval Court Cultures' led by Karl Kügle at the University of Oxford.
Since 2008, he has joined forces with Marc Lewon (and later, Baptiste Romain) to plan and deliver a series of intensive 3-day courses given at the Burg Fürsteneck Akademie für berufliche und musisch-kulturelle Weiterbilding. 18 of these formed a unit, systematically surveying music from the years 500-1500, while others were stand-alone events covering a narrower topic.
Pandemic allowing, musicological activities are supplemented with worldwide performances, recordings and radio broadcasts. He is a founder-member and co-director of ensemble Le Basile, specializing in secular music circa 1300-1500, and of A Garden of Eloquence, a Voice-Lute-Viola da Gamba trio working working on English song circa 1600. He works with many other ensembles including Ensemble Leones, Le Miroir de Musique, the Hathor Consort, Ensemble Perlaro, Ensemble La Morra, the Earle his Viols, the Phoenix ensemble and Dulce Melos. Uri is also interested in community music and public participation, and currently leads two amateur choirs: Wriggle Valley Voices, and the Yeovil Music Centre Choir.
Since 2008, he has joined forces with Marc Lewon (and later, Baptiste Romain) to plan and deliver a series of intensive 3-day courses given at the Burg Fürsteneck Akademie für berufliche und musisch-kulturelle Weiterbilding. 18 of these formed a unit, systematically surveying music from the years 500-1500, while others were stand-alone events covering a narrower topic.
Pandemic allowing, musicological activities are supplemented with worldwide performances, recordings and radio broadcasts. He is a founder-member and co-director of ensemble Le Basile, specializing in secular music circa 1300-1500, and of A Garden of Eloquence, a Voice-Lute-Viola da Gamba trio working working on English song circa 1600. He works with many other ensembles including Ensemble Leones, Le Miroir de Musique, the Hathor Consort, Ensemble Perlaro, Ensemble La Morra, the Earle his Viols, the Phoenix ensemble and Dulce Melos. Uri is also interested in community music and public participation, and currently leads two amateur choirs: Wriggle Valley Voices, and the Yeovil Music Centre Choir.
