Ali Hasan
Musician
“This is how he manages to transform his longing for home and daily fear for the relatives he left behind – into music”
ZDF.de
ALI HASAN
MUSICIAN
Ali Hasan is a Berlin-based musician, percussionist, educator, and certified physical therapist with roots in Syria. Known for his evocative rhythms and dynamic performances, Ali blends cultural tradition with contemporary energy, performing both solo and with prominent ensembles like the Resident Music Collective at Humboldt Forum, Pulsar Collective, and the Dabke Community Dance by Sasha Waltz & Guests.
Ali’s musical journey is marked by both formal training and transformative mentorship. He studied at the Berlin Handpan Academy and the Groove Institute for Percussion in Syria, further enriched by guidance from Sasha Waltz, Grandmaster Shi Yan Lin, and Master Mohammad Reza Mortazavi. Each mentor influenced his distinctive approach: Waltz fostered his collaborative spirit, Shi Yan Lin cultivated his awareness of physical movement and healing, and Mortazavi inspired his technical mastery and innovative rhythms.
In addition to his performance work, Ali co-founded BAYNATNA, an Arabic-German public library and art space in Berlin, in 2017. BAYNATNA promotes Arabic and international arts, creating a vital cultural bridge and earning awards like The Power of the Arts 2020 – Transforming Society and Active for Democracy and Tolerance. His commitment to cultural preservation and artistic expression has garnered media attention from ZDF, Arte, Deutschlandfunk kultur, العربي الجديد, رصيف 22, أمل برلين، Al Jazeera English، RSI Switzerland , The Syrian Observer, The Standard “Hong Kong”, The Dailymail UK, and The Washington Times underscoring his role as an Artist.
Ali’s dedication to fostering art and community is further supported by a scholarship from Sasha Waltz & Guests, awarded through the “Weltoffenes Berlin – Artist at Risk” initiative by the Berlin Senate and Allianz Kulturstiftung. In Winter 2024/2025, he will bring his unique vision to students as a guest instructor at the Berlin University of the Arts (Universität der Künste – UDK). His course, Urban Rhythms: From Traditional Beats to City Streets, will explore the intersection of traditional percussion and modern urban soundscapes, offering students a rich blend of cultural history, rhythmic discipline, and contemporary innovation.
Ali Hasan’s journey is a testament to his passion for music, his dedication to cultural preservation, and his vision of creating spaces where art and healing intersect. Through his multifaceted roles, he promotes creative dialogue across borders, enriching the lives and communities he touches.
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ZDF.de
Eingebürgert
Auf dem Weg zum deutschen Pass
Der gebürtige Syrer Ali (33) weiß genau, weshalb er mit seiner kleinen Familie eingebürgert werden möchte und ist Deutschland jeden Tag dankbar. Der gelernte Physiotherapeut und Musiker hat viel getan, um Vergangenes möglichst zu vergessen. Er hat mit Freunden eine deutsch-arabische Bibliothek aufgebaut und spielt als Perkussionist in verschiedenen Formationen und mit Tänzern zusammen. So schafft er es, die Sehnsucht nach der Heimat und tägliche Angst um seine zurückgelassenen Verwandten zu transformieren – in Musik. Doch das lange Warten auf die Einbürgerung zehrt an seinen Nerven, auch weil ungeahnte Hindernisse auftauchen.
Watch Full Film here
Ali’s journey is indeed very special; in this video he does not only talk about his difficult experience fleeing his home country Syria in 2015 to get to Germany, but he also shares with us his personal journey to finding himself through music, a medium that transcends places, time and borders. His passion for music and dance created a deep playground for him to experiment into the contemporary artistic world and explore the harmonic relationship between movement, body, and tunes, the action and the reaction between dance and music, and in the emotional sensitivity of the rhythm. Ali’s journey is a message for hope, resilience and peace.
The Resident Music Collective
in Humboldt forum performing during the Ceremony for the Opening of the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst with speeches by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters and author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Re:Writing the Future is a digital multi-day festival about artistic freedom, spaces of resilience and international solidarity. Exiled artists from around the world, the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) and cultural institutions in Berlin come together to network and to explore the role of art in turbulent times. How do urban cultures get shaped and revitalized by the experiences of newcomers? How can cultural institutions face the double challenge of growing illiberalism and the ongoing shutdown? And what role do cities play in times of nationalist thinking and the standstill of cultural life? It’s time to come together to forge new alliances for a different path toward the future.
A vibrant celebration of Middle Eastern culture! Led by talented artists Medhat Aldabaal and Ali Hasan, participants will immerse themselves in the rhythmic energy of this traditional Levantine Arab folk dance.
The workshop aims to provide a hands-on experience of the essence of Dabke, meaning “to stomp the feet” in Arabic, allowing attendees to discover the rich cultural heritage of Palestine, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. This workshop is not just about dance; it’s about fostering cultural understanding and celebrating diversity.
Pulsar Collective is a band of multi-instrumental live-looping artists that create a unique and exciting new sound between electronic beats, acoustic instruments and live vocals – all improvised and emerging from spontaneous creativity. With the courage to venture into the unknown, the group leaves behind widely propagated perceptions of perfection and instead focuses on the playful and wild musical interaction on stage and with the audience. They take their listeners on a journey through organic, psychedelic techno and house tracks, and inspire with characteristic reinterpretations of their favorite folk and pop culture anthems. The music in this video is accompanied by instruments like drum-machine, microtonal electric guitar, chromatic kalimba, oriental darbuka, bamboo saxophone as well as custom-made synthesizers and voice effects.
The Humboldt Forum’s previous guises have always been associated with music: hymns in the medieval monastery; baroque concerts in the Berlin Palace; military marches in imperial times; socialist songs in the Palace of the Republic. What kind of music would be a good fit for today’s Humboldt Forum: a new meeting point for different cultures and people, objects and discourses? This is where the Resident Music Collective comes in. Several times a year, musicians from local communities come together to improvise and make music on instruments from their respective traditions: be it a kamanche from Iran, a balafon from West Africa, a cuatro from Venezuela, a frame drum from Syria, or the world’s first ‘contact-free’ instrument, the theremin. How do these instruments sound together in concert? Come and hear for yourselves, live at the Humboldt Forum. Stay tuned for upcoming dates!
BORDERLESS Ep.3 — Artists
Musician
علي حسن، هو عازف إيقاع، ومؤلف موسيقي سوري، وفنان مقيم في منتدى هومبولت في العاصمة برلين، يضيف، خلال حديثه مع رصيف22، أنّ “الانفتاح الهائل، وأماكن الموسيقى الكثيرة، وأنماط الموسيقى المختلفة التي تأتي من العالم كله، إلى برلين، والتي بدورها تقدم ملاذاً آمناً، ومساحة ملهمة كبيرة للموسيقيين/ ات، كي يختبروا/ ن الموسيقى، تسمح لي بإنتاج موسيقى تشبهني”
Die Musik ist die Sphäre, in der ich mein Selbst und meine Wahrheit verteidige
“Las fronteras no tienen sentido, la música sí. A través de la música puedes conectar sunitas y chiitas, cristianos y musulmanes. El mundo de los ritmos es seguro”
As Hasan started beating the drums faster and harder the participants, mostly German but also Spanish, American, and Polish, began easing into the dance
in 2020 Baynatna & FANN – The Arabic language library of Berlin, WIR MACHEN DAS / wearedoingit e. V. wins the
「Ali」。辿りついたベルリンは、彼が奏でる音楽や愛する文学を通して街の人々が強くつながることが実感できる美しい場所と語る一方
Ali Hasan – Syrian musician and contemporary artist
Since moving to Berlin, Ali Hasan has collaborated with many international artists. He has a playground with which he explores the harmonious relationship between movement, body and melodies and experiments with contemporary rhythm.
