Hasan Khalil was born near Sinjar Mountains in Northern Iraq. Along with his parents in the late 1980s they escaped the war and perescuation when he was 3 years old and moved to Syria, where he spend most of his life in Refugee Camps. When he was 14, his family made its way to the United States, first Buffalo, NY; and then to Lincoln NE, among the first of what would become around 5,000 Yazidis, most of them fleeing religious persecution and genocide.

Khalil’s love for music started at home listening to his dad and other elder folks who played the “Saz instrument’ and sang stories about Yazidi culture and Genocides and it was a way for the younger generation to learn about the history of their culture through music. Khalil now has Band called ‘Golden Studio’ and mostly plays keyboards and compose his own melodies to reflect back to stories from a the past and researches new music and generes to blend with his own style of music.

His band has 4 to 5 members, a singer, Saz player, drums player, and keyboard and bass. The Golden Studio is fluent in many styles including Traditional Yazidi music, middle eastern and world music, meditation, beautiful melodies, and dance music. Mostly demanded community celebrations and events around Lincoln since 2016. Hasan Khalil made his debut at “ Lied Center Performance Art” with his band in 2021. Khalil was an inspiration for and an essential musical contributor to the Lincoln Crossroads Music Festival in 2019, his participation and the central figure of Nebraska’s public broadcast “The Sounds of Home”. Khalil improvises and composes his music, he’s a self-taught musician. Khalil believes music is a universal language and we can all listen to each other’s stories, learn about other cultures, and freely express our emotions in this beautiful language.