Hassan Estakhrian

Hassan Estakhrian is a multidisciplinary musician based in California. He is a composer, performer, songwriter, intermedia artist, producer, music technologist, sound engineer, and educator. Hassan collides rock/funk/jazz with experimental/chamber music and incorporates technologies and various forms of media to create large and small scale musical works. He performs and records on multiple instruments including voice, electric bass, guitar, keyboards, drum set, computer, and a slew of other instruments. As a technologist and engineer, he develops systems for music production, compositional aid, and live performance and does research in virtual acoustics and immersive audio. 

 
Hassan’s compositions are represented by a variety of quirky creations and narratives including sci-fi rock operas, musical games with graphic scorecards, intermedia works composed from found objects such as plastics and toys, vocal music inspired by field recordings of nature, and chamber pieces infused with rock n' roll and funk.

 

In addition to being the director of the music group Antenna Fuzz, Hassan has performed and recorded with a number of groups spanning across genres including rock band Valerian Sun, contemporary classical music ensemble Dal Niente, and experimental-pop duo Meoark, to name a few. He has composed for renowned ensembles such as JACK Quartet, WasteLAnd, Tak Ensemble, Variant 6, Mocrep, Ensemble Proton Bern, and Kukuruz Quartet. His work has been performed in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Hassan has a number of releases including a live album of his sci-fi rock opera called Zolk Tizzer Live! and an EP called Interwebbed performed with The Living Earth Show. His music has also been featured in documentaries, game apps, and tutorials.

 

Hassan is currently a doctoral candidate in music composition at Stanford University as a recipient of The David R. Coelho Graduate Fellowship. He earned a Bachelor of Music in Composition from West Chester University and a Master of Fine Arts in Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology from University of California, Irvine. Hassan has studied with acclaimed composers including Mark Applebaum, Nicole Mitchell, Jarosław Kapuściński, Brian Ferneyhough, Chris Chafe, Erik Ulman, Chris Dobrian, Ko Umezaki, Michael Dessen, Robert Maggio, Adam Silverman, Larry Nelson, Van Stiefel, and others.

 
As an educator, Hassan teaches sound-recording technology courses at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University. He also manages CCRMA’s recording studio.