Uri Smilansky was born and brought up in Israel where he studied the Violin, Viola, composition, but more prominently the Recorder and Viola da Gamba. In 2001 he moved to Basel to study Vielle and Baroque Recorder at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, from where he graduated with honours in 2006. At the Schola, he acted as a project and teaching assistant, and in 2015 returned for a semester to teach Medieval ear training and ensemble-work. Starting in the autumn semester 2023-24 he teaches as professor for notation at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.
Uri Smilansky is active in the fields of research, teaching and performance:
In 2010 he completed his PhD on the music of the Ars Subtilior at the University of Exeter. There followed a postdoctoral position at Exeter, editing the music of Guillaume de Machaut (2010-2014); a teaching stint at Shakespeare’s Globe (2015); a teaching fellowship at King’s College London (2016-2019), and a second postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Oxford (2019-2022). Uri is widely published in the academic sector, and sits on the board of the International Machaut Society.
In 2008 he co-founded a long-running teaching programme at the Burgfürsteneck Akademie für berufliche und musisch-kulturelle Weiterbildung, and in 2014 began running shorter intensive courses as a co-founder of Sherborne Early Music. He has performed and recorded a wide range of repertoires as a soloist as well as with groups including Ensemble Leones, In Echo, the Taverner Consort and Players, Musicians of the Globe, La Morra, the Earle his Viols, Perlaro, the Phoenix Ensemble and Dulce Melos. He is a co-founder and director of the ensembles Le Basile and A Garden of Eloquence.