Sylvain Paslier is a French-American musician, recording artist, and cultural pioneer of the Hang and handpan art form. Since discovering the original Hang in 2005 through his cousin and collaborator David Charrier, he has dedicated his career to exploring the creative and communal possibilities of this young instrument family.

Born in Lyon, France in 1990, Sylvain moved to the United States in 2011. After a two-year search, he acquired his first Hang in 2007, a rare sound sculpture made by PANArt in Switzerland. Early jam sessions led to bands such as Confiture de Hang, Keona, and Wadhom, and to life-long friendships within the first global Hang community. By 2009–2010, he was already performing professionally, including daily shows at the Festival of Nations in Tennessee.

Since then, Sylvain has performed hundreds of concerts, released seven albums, and introduced millions of online viewers to the handpan through his music and educational projects. His performances have been broadcast on live television, and his work has been featured by international media including Bloomberg News.

In 2015, Sylvain recorded Carousel, a studio album that captured the original compositions from his formative years with the instrument. From 2018 onward, he hosted The Handpan Podcast (28 episodes), sharing the transformation stories of makers, players, and enthusiasts worldwide. From 2018 to 2023, he worked with Pantheon Steel, a leading U.S. handpan manufacturer, and later joined MasterTheHandpan, the world’s largest online school dedicated to the instrument.

A defining moment in his career came in 2021–2022, when he represented the handpan at the World Expo in Dubai as part of the official Expo Music Department led by Maestro Harout Fazlian. Across seven months and hundreds of performances, he collaborated with musicians from Lebanon, Cyprus, Syria, Trinidad, and China, blending the Hang with didgeridoo, lyra, qanun, steel pan, and guzheng. These collaborations culminated in World Music, a compilation album celebrating the diversity of the Expo.

Today, Sylvain continues to innovate through Myths & Moods, a band and creative project weaving mythic storytelling with immersive soundscapes built around the original Hang. His latest release, Hajmiin: A Guided Musical Fantasy, blends fantasy narratives with music to create unique live and recorded experiences.

Across performance, recording, teaching, and storytelling, Sylvain’s work reflects a consistent thread: building bridges through music, honoring the origins of the Hang, and inviting audiences into new imaginative worlds.