The Feldenkrais Method Helps Cellists!

Uri Vardi

The Feldenkrais Method is a modality used to improve body awareness that has proven to be highly effective in alleviating pain, anxiety, and movement difficulties. The Method involves the use of movement, touch and imagery as tools for learning new ways of functioning. The heightened awareness that develops through the use of this method leads to improved body image, organization and function.

Musicians benefit from this enhanced awareness with an increase in artistic vocabulary, in the ability to more efficiently express artistic intention, in the prevention of pain and injury, and in expedient healing from current injury. Unlike the medical model, which prescribes ways to achieve the correct state, the Feldenkrais Method leads the participant to discover his or her own solution. It is based on theoretical knowledge about the nervous system and its capacity to learn. The learning environment is gentle, safe, and creates a process of self-discovery.

Your Body is Your Strad is a summer program that includes both Feldenkrais for All Performers (May 30 – June 3) and the National Summer Cello Institute (May 30 – June 12). It is run by Feldenkrais practitioners and musicians Uri and Hagit Vardi who offer workshops around the world to help performers (cellists, other performing musicians, actors and dancers) become aware of the intimate relationship between the way that they use their body and the art that they create. This is a rare opportunity for cellists and all performing artists to discover greater artistic expression and physical wellness through enhanced body awareness under the guidance of renowned Feldenkrais practitioners, cello faculty, and specialists in the medical and performing arts fields. 2015 National Summer Cello Institute faculty includes Uri Vardi of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Timothy Eddy of the Juilliard and Mannes School, Paul Katz of New England Conservatory, and Feldenkrais Practitioner Hagit Vardi of the University of Wisconsin Integrative Medicine Program. For more information on summer and year-round programs, please go to: www.YourBodyisYourStrad.com. The deadline to apply for the 2015 Your Body is Your Strad summer programs is now—March 31!

Uri Vardi is a professor of Cello at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Subjects: Playing Healthy, Technique

Tags: cellobello, CelloBlog, Feldenkrais Method, March 31, Uri Vardi

AUTHOR

Uri Vardi

Cellist Uri Vardi has performed as a recitalist, soloist, and chamber player across the United States, Europe, Far East, 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 Cello teachers have included Janos Starker, Aldo Parisot, Eva Janzer, and Uzi Wiesel. Other influential musicians in his life have been Gyorgy Sebok, Rami Shevelov, Rachel Adonaylo and Lorand Fenyves. Vardi served as Assistant Principal cellist of the Israel Chamber Orchestra, Principal cellist of the Israel Sinfonietta, and was a founding member of the Sol-La-Re String Quartet. In 1990, following an extensive teaching and performing career, Vardi was appointed cello professor at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Vardi is the founder and artistic director of the National Summer Cello Institute (NSCI) in Madison, Wisconsin. In 2017 the Institute was renamed to: Your Body Is Your Strad(YBIYS), and re-located to Caroga Lake, NY. Vardi is regularly invited to perform and present workshops, seminars, and master classes at major music schools, summer music festivals, and professional orchestras including: Musicorda Festival, Greenwood, Heifetz Institute, Madeline Island Chamber Music Festival, New World Symphony Orchestra, Ravinia Steans Music Institute (RSMI) among others.

Trained as a Feldenkrais practitioner, Vardi focuses on the correlation between musical expression, sound, body awareness, and movement in his teaching and performance. Throughout his career, Uri Vardi has continuously initiated new projects and collaborations, bringing to life rarely- performed music (e.g. CD of Jewish music from the St. Petersburg School), and bridging cultural and musical divides (e.g. 'Fusions' - A chamber music project of Jewish music and Arab art music, that toured the US and Israel on multiple occasions and culminated in the commission of 'Forty Steps' by Joel Hoffman, a Double Concerto for Cello, Oud, and Symphony orchestra, premiered with the Madison Symphony Orchestra).

Vardi has released two albums with the Delos Production label and is currently in the final stages of releasing a new album with Centaur Records.

Vardi’s Students have been successful as soloists, chamber players, faculty members of major music schools and members of major orchestras.

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