Uri Smilansky teaches notation in Basel

Uri Smilansky was born and raised in Israel, where he studied violin, viola, composition, but above all recorder and viola da gamba. In 2001, he moved to Basel to study viola da gamba and baroque recorder at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where he graduated with honors in 2006. He worked at the Schola as a project and teaching assistant and returned in 2015 to teach medieval aural training and ensemble work for a semester.

In 2010 he completed his doctorate on the music of the Ars Subtilior at the University of Exeter. This was followed by a postdoctoral position at Exeter on the edition of works by Guillaume de Machaut (2010-2014), a teaching position at Shakespeare's Globe (2015), a teaching fellowship at King's College London (2016-2019) and a second postgraduate research fellowship at the University of Oxford (2019-2022). Uri has published widely in academia and is a member of the board of the International Machaut Society.

In 2008 he co-founded a long-term teaching program at the Burgfürsteneck Academy for professional and musical-cultural further education, and since 2014 has been running shorter intensive courses as co-founder of Sherborne Early Music. He has performed and recorded a wide range of repertoire as a soloist and with groups such as Ensemble Leones, In Echo, the Taverner Consort and Players, Musicians of the Globe, La Morra, Earle his Viols, Perlaro, the Phoenix Ensemble and Dulce Melos. He is co-founder and director of the ensembles Le Basile and A Garden of Eloquence.