Hamid Motebassem was born in 1958 in Mashad, Iran. He was raised in a musical family, where his brother was a violinist and his first teacher was his father, Ali Motebassem who played the Tar.

His subsequent teachers included the masters:

		Ali Motebassem
		Habiballlah Salehi
		Zeydallah Toloie
		Hooshang Zarif
		Hossein Alizadeh
		Mohammad Reza Lotfi

Motebassem studied in the Tehran School of Art and the Conservatory of Persian Music. He was a member of the Chavosh Cultural Center where he taught music. One of the original members of Aref Ensemble, he founded Dastan Ensemble as well as Ensemble Chakavak upon immigration to Germany in 1986.

Hamid Motebassem is the founder of the Society of Tar and Setar and has since 1994 organized annual seminars dedicated to the two instruments. He has performed on numerous albums of contemporary Iranian composers. His own works include compositions for traditional instruments, the recordings Bamdad; The Scent of Norooz; The Song of the Sea; Saz-e No, Avaz-e No, Dastan Trio; Dastan Duet; Hanaie and Shurideh, which won the title“Musical Shock“ in the music journal, Le Monde and received the 2003 Best Music of the Year Award from the French Ministry of Culture.

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