Uri Vardi has performed as a recitalist, soloist, and chamber player across the United States, Europe, South America, and his native Israel. Born in Szeged, Hungary, Vardi grew up on kibbutz Kfar Hahoresh, Israel. He studied at the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv, was an artist diploma student at Indiana University, and earned his master's degree from Yale University. His teachers have included Janos Starker, Aldo Parisot, Eva Janzer, and Uzi Wiesel. Vardi has recorded and toured widely with the Israel Chamber Orchestra and was a founding member of the Sol-La-Re String Quartet. He has served as assistant principal cellist of the Israel Chamber Orchestra and principal cellist of the Israel Sinfonietta.

In 1990, following an extensive teaching and performing career in Israel, Vardi was appointed professor of cello at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition to his work at Wisconsin, Vardi has taught and conducted master classes at numerous music schools, including the Juilliard School, Eastman School, New England Conservatory, Indiana University, Yale University, Oberlin College, Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Iowa, Ohio State University, Geneva Conservatory (Switzerland), Paris Conservatory (France), and the Jerusalem Music Center (Israel). He has also participated in several summer music festivals across the U. S. and Israel. Professor Vardi's students have been successful as soloists, chamber players, faculty members of major music schools and members of major orchestras. In his teaching, Vardi puts great emphasis on the choreography of playing, the relationship between movement and sound. In order to further his understanding of this approach, Vardi has specialized in the Feldenkrais Method, for which he received the 1999 UW-Madison Arts Institute Faculty Development Award. He completed a Feldenkrais Practitioners Training and was certified by the Feldenkrais Guild of North America and by the International Feldenkrais Federation as a Feldenkrais practitioner in 2003.


My Teaching
In addition to my cello teaching at the University of Wisconsin School of Music I offer a two credit course titled Feldenkrais for Musicians. The course is open to all instrumentalists, and includes a weekly Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement class, and a weekly master class which concentrates on options of movement in relation to musical intention.

I was an Artist/Faculty for seven years at Musicorda Summer Music Festival in South Hadley, Masschusetts (where I also offered Feldenkrais private lessons, master classes, and Awareness Through Movement classes). During the Summers of 2005 and 2006 I was an Artist/Faculty at the Heifetz International Music Institute in New Hampshire.

I have presented numerous cello master classes in the U. S., Europe, South America and Israel. Whenever I present a masterclass the principle of body awareness as related to intent and execution, production of sound, and communication of musical ideas is an integral part of my teaching.

Cellists and other musicians from across the country have sought my help in coping with music related injuries and efficient use of the body. I feel fortunate that I am able to help my students leave behind unhealthy habits that have limited or disabled them, and take them on a path of healthier and more fulfilling music making.

Read Healthy Practices: Feldenkrais, Movement, and Music (in column at right)
in Wisconsin Cello Society Newsletter, Opus 5, No. 1 (Summer 2004).