Hans Barklis traverses worlds along ridgelines of rhythm—shaped by jazz, Capoeira, Son Jarocho, Cuban Rumba, and the many folkloric traditions that carry stories across continents. His work resides in spaces where memory becomes music, and music becomes movement: in classrooms and Capoeira rodas, at fandangos in Veracruz, and within communities stretching from New York and Boston to California and Washington. For more than twenty-five years, he has created programs that weave sound and motion into pathways of cross-cultural connection. Within Studio Latino at IDEAL PDX, this weaving also includes a quiet thread of mindfulness—inviting students to arrive fully in their bodies, to listen with care, and to experience rhythm as both expression and presence.

A multilingual educator and Orff Schulwerk practitioner, Hans has taught learners of every age and ability, including neurodiverse and developmentally disabled students. His teaching is grounded in play—voices blending, minds engaged, and beats braiding like strands of DNA. Informed by his training as a yoga teacher in the Inner Body Yoga tradition (rooted in the Iyengar lineage) and more than two decades of contemplative practice within Tibetan Buddhism, he approaches music-making and movement as whole-body experiences—attentive, relational, and grounded. Wherever he teaches—Portland (both Oregon and Maine), the Bronx, southern Mexico, and beyond—he cultivates environments where imagination becomes a shared language, accessible to all participants.

As a performer and composer, Hans collaborates with master musicians from across the Americas and the African diaspora. His compositions—written for ensembles ranging from the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble to kindergarten choirs—trace threads between tradition and improvisation, as well as between discipline and spontaneity. Each piece serves as an offering: a way of honoring the lineages that inform his work while listening for what new forms might wish to emerge.

In all he creates—music, curricula, and community—Hans seeks to kindle a sense of wonder. His work is an invitation: to move, to listen deeply, and to experience the world as a place alive with song.