Musician, philosopher, writer, poet and painter, Hassan was known for his many-sided career and intellectual curiosity, as he continued to combine his medical expertise with artistic talent. He composed music for Egyptian operas, his dramatic works were staged at the Edinburgh International Festival of Music and Drama, among other international events, in the 1960s and 1970s, and he exhibited his canvases at Cairo and London galleries. Widely respected by the cultural community, Hassan was often referred to as a true Renaissance Man.

This term originates from the writings of Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), a prominent figure of the Italian Renaissance, who believed that “a man can do all things if he will,” and become an ideal of a well-rounded individual with a broad range of knowledge and skills, balance and harmony, while remaining an active participant in society, contributing to the betterment of his community. Those qualities do perfectly define Hassan.

In an interview published in this space back in 2011, he explained that being a physician prompted him to undergo profound research into causes, which in its turn led him to new paths. At the heart of his process was the aim to understand the cause on multiple levels: “I am committed to the human being, to admiring that miracle of life. Through my studies of the human being, I branch out into philosophy, anthropology, sociology, etc.”

The household into which Hassan was born provided a strong backbone for those multilayered explorations. His father was particularly interested in biochemistry and nutrition, serving as the dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Alexandria University; he was also the General Director of University Hospitals; and a deep interest in music  enriched his professional trajectory.

Hassan’s mother Zeinab Kamel Hassan broke every social barrier to obtain a university degree in chemistry from England, and became the first Egyptian woman to teach at the Faculty of Science in the Egyptian (now Cairo) University. A non-profit organisation, the Zenab Kamel Hassan Foundation of Holistic Human Development (ZKH), was founded in 1992 in honour of her achievement, with Tarek Ali Hassan elected its honorary chairman.

Tarek Ali Hassan as a young boy, with his Italian violin teacher

We also know that Hassan embarked on an artistic path even before he started studying medicine. He was just three years old when he heard his father, already a professor of medicine, taking violin lessons, and fell in love with the instrument almost instantly. Like many children at that age, he followed the Suzuki method in violin study, before taking private classes with an Italian music teacher in Alexandria. Music formed a large part of his activities, but when he grew up Hassan’s main course of study was medicine. Science was so central to his parents’ life that the family household was attached to a hospital and always hosted physicians.

Having obtained Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees (MBChB) at Cairo University in 1959, Hassan travelled to London to pursue postgraduate studies in medicine. Alongside that, he decided to study music as a part-time student at the Royal Academy of Music. “In London, every day, I would spend the time between medical study sessions in the National Music Library. I would stay until I was literally kicked out every night,” he told me years ago.

On his return to Egypt, both of Hassan’s trajectories continued to intertwine. During his decades of active academic and artistic work in Egypt, he instigated many projects aiming to bring music and the arts to the young. He initiated music appreciation activities at the Faculty of Medicine, involved students in concerts, invested in and helped to develop their talent. The movement was very successful, especially in the 1960s, and drew in thousands of young people as contributors or listeners. And when art education was gradually being retracted from the educational system, he wrote dozens of letters and petitions to the relevant ministers about the importance of teaching art and especially music at kindergarten, primary and secondary schools as well as universities.

While encouraging the presence of music and music education in households, Hassan was already composing. He was 24 years old when he received a Gold Medal for Musical Composition at the Inter-Universities Festival in Damascus, Syria (1961). His works, such as Symphonic Suite: Al Mansoura, The Fanfare for the Opera, Sinfonietta for Strings, among numerous other string quartets and chamber works, have enriched Egypt’s classic repertoire.

In the first decades of his musical career, Hassan’s works were performed in Cairo and Europe, but the frequency of those concerts dropped as time passed. This was a pity, since Hassan’s compositions are soaked in the complexity and depth of a musical intellectual, a man who enjoys showcasing his innovative approach to sound and harmony. And, as Hassan always said, the themes explored in his music are the same ones that marked his life, reflecting a journey to understanding identity, culture, and spirituality.

In late 1980s, Hassan’s rich portfolio led him to the chairmanship of the new Cairo Opera House (National Cultural Centre of Egypt), underlining his pivotal role in Egypt’s music and cultural scene.

He assumed the role of the Opera’s chairman in late 1989, succeeding opera singer Ratiba El-Hefny (1988-1989). During his tenure, which lasted until the end of 1991, Hassan made his mark on the institution’s history. Until his time at the opera, no music library had existed as such; all scores and recordings crowded the opera management’s offices. Hassan initiated building and eventually had all those riches moved to the newly erected Music Library, an edifice that still stands at the Cairo Opera House complex. While encouraging its expansion and development, he then continued to promote the new library’s importance as a cultural and educational resource.

During his chairmanship, Hassan also supported the Cairo Opera Ballet Company, a corps led by late ballet dancer Abdel Moneim Kamel, which had just made the opera as its home. He also embraced the development of the Modern Ballet Company alongside the newly emerging meanders of this national troupe. Besides his job at the opera, Hassan continued working to promote music, becoming a founding member of the Friends of the Opera Society, which promoted the Opera’s activities for several years. At the peak of his career in music, in 1991, Hassan was awarded the highest honour of the French government: Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, a rank superior to the more popular Chevalier or Officier.

Even when he left the Cairo Opera, the Renaissance man continued to express his views through writing and symposia. The topics he presented touched on all aspects of culture and creative development, including celebrations of Western and Arab composers, discussions of symphonic music, lectures on monophonic and polyphonic styles that included analysis of contemporary composers’ styles. He enjoyed branching out to more philosophical concepts, asking himself (and the audience) questions about whether art is imitation or exploration.

His interest in philosophy led to him becoming an active participant in the Afro-Asian Conference on Philosophy, while his unique look at socio-political changes made him constantly ponder the relationship between East and West, and the importance of dialogue, constantly searching for a healthy pluralism. The creative vein called for promoting theatre as a tool of social change. No need to mention that all Hassan’s culture-related appearances were paralleled by an equally dynamic presence in the medical field, including being a keynote speaker at a variety of important medical conferences, topped with his everlasting interest in mental and holistic health.

Tarek Ali Hassan (third from right) among honorees during the Cairo Opera House 25th Anniversary celebrations (2013)

In the last two decades of his life, Hassan became increasingly vocal about the crisis of thought and lack of curiosity that causes deprivation of culture, caused by political, social and religious structures. He looked deep into group psychology, and interactive communication between leader-follower or teacher-student as a result.

As the years of the Opera’s leadership grew distant, Hassan continued to observe the changes taking place in this institution and in the music scene at large. He began expressing concerns about the threat of artistic corruption and “the people in power excluding everybody not belonging to the clan, fighting talent and creative ability.” According to him, many musical institutions no longer operated on a capability matrix, but turned to hubs subject to a loyalty matrix.

Those thoughts and ever-changing dynamics probably made him feel increasingly excluded. My last interview with Tarek Ali Hassan took place in 2011. Seated in a cosy armchair at his Dokki home, he remained composed, weighing his words while looking at the socio-political changes taking place in the country. He was hopeful if a bit worried: “We need to get rid of corruption, abuse, retrograde thought and frozen ideas. There is a chance to purify the system and sow afresh on virgin land, with new people and new minds. But I’m also frightened that it will all be repopulated with people of the same mentality.”

The past one-and-a-half decade brought about many changes, the new balance of power brought new factors into the music scene, the majority of which Hassan could not even predict. This is probably one of the reasons he started slowly withdrawing from the field, reappearing occasionally with new articles on medicine or the arts. His name would return as a participant in a few discussions around art and culture, such as the launch of his book, The Egyptian Woman’s Journey: On the Road from Marginalisation to Participation, in 2018. He would occasionally share his thoughts on social media, a fragile bridge between him and a fast changing world. His last post on social media was about the passing of his wife, Mrs Jane Blinkensop Hassan, on 1 August this year. He followed her five weeks later, on 8 September.

A dedicated believer in the power of humanity, Tarek Ali Hassan was a Renaissance man increasingly deprived of the Renaissance values. His legacy however will speak for itself through research, compositions, and documented thought that can continue to inspire and trigger action.

 

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* A version of this article appears in print in the 19 September, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly