David Charrier

French handpan pioneer, composer and educator who founded MasterTheHandpan and develops melodic projects across acoustic and electronic settings.

David Charrier is a French multi-instrumentalist who encountered the Hang in 2004 and became one of the early European artists to build a sustained musical and educational practice around tuned steel. His projects have included solo work, the duo Keona with Sylvain Paslier and arrangements combining handpan with guitar, cello, piano, voice and electronics. The common thread is a melodic and compositional approach that treats the instrument as part of a wider musical palette rather than as a self-contained novelty. In 2016 he founded MasterTheHandpan, creating an international learning platform with courses from a broad range of teachers. Charrier’s profile therefore spans performance, composition, production and community infrastructure. His music often moves between gentle acoustic storytelling and contemporary crossover, while his educational work has helped make structured handpan learning available far beyond local workshops.