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Chani Smith (PhD) studied musicology and Kabbalah at the Hebrew University. She later received an MA in Jewish Studies from Leo Baeck College and holds professional qualification from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she studied flute and composition. She teaches cantillation at the rabbinical programme at Leo Baeck College, and has published "Learn to Leyn: The Cantillation of the Hebrew Bible". Her book "Tuning the Soul: Music as a Spiritual Process in the Teachings of Rabbi Nahman of Bratzlav", recently published by Brill, is based on her PhD dissertation, submitted to UCL in 2008. Previously she published a chapter on the Shekhinah in “The Absent Mother” (Pirani, A, ed., 1991) and on Nahman’s perception of Music in the Journal of Synagogue Music (2009). She is an occasional composer, and has performed in theatre in Israel, UK and USA, and with various musical ensembles.