Ahmed Hassan (1955 - 2011)
musician and composer

Born in Cairo, Hassan moved to Halifax with his family in 1969. He entered Dalhousie University to study biochemistry but after a chance encounter with percussionist Ricardo Abreut of Toronto Dance Theatre, he changed course to study music. Largely self-taught, Hassan studied with Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos in New York who had a significant influence on him. Hassan, in turn, went on to inspire a new generation of musicians and composers, Debashis Sinha and Michael Menegon among many others. Hassan was connected to Canada’s dance community throughout his career, beginning by accompanying Sara Shelton Mann’s dance classes in Halifax and then Peter Boneham’s classes in Ottawa. Hassan participated in the 1980 National Choreographic Seminar in Banff, continuing on to Vancouver where he composed music for the artists of Terminal City Dance and was a founding member of the collective EDAM (Experimental Dance and Music). He moved to Toronto in the early 1980s to work with Desrosiers Dance Theatre where he collaborated with composers John Lang and Jean Dorais, among others. With Lang, he created the music for Desrosiers’ Blue Snake for The National Ballet of Canada; the National Film Board documentary Inner Rhythm records their creative process. Other choreographers with whom Hassan worked include Lola MacLaughlin, Jennifer Mascall, Karen Jamieson and Serge Bennathan. His Fourteen Remembered, a requiem to commemorate the women murdered at Montréal’s École Polytechnique, was performed annually from 1998–2001. He and Peggy Baker were married in 1991.

For Peggy Baker Dance Projects: Ahmed composed and performed the music for Geometry of the Circle, and Sanctum, with an existing composition incorporated into the score for this identity: woven.