MAKIKO HIRATA
DMA.(Doctor of Musical Arts)
Dr. Pianist, A Shigeru Kawai Artist
An international pianist with ten released albums, Makiko Hirata is “Dr. Pianist” with a
Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rice University, on a mission to promote the power of
music to heal and unite us. She collaborates with neuroscientists to quantify the benefit of
music and promote the power of music as an overlooked social resource to enhance our
individual and social well-being through speaking engagements, workshops and writing.
She is a US-Japan Leadership Program Fellow, a founding member of TEMPO: Music for
Climate Action, and Coeuraj’s 2022 “Global Courage Fellow” that honors industry leaders
around the world to focus on trust and bridge building in an era of polarization.
Dr. Hirata has given recitals, lectures, concerto performances and outreach concerts in
the Americas and Eurasia with ensembles and artists, such as the River Oaks Chamber
Orchestra, the Pecs Hungarian Symphony Orchestra, conductor Leon Fleisher, and
clarinetist David Krakauer. She has taught at New York University, Colburn Conservatory
of Music, Rice University, and Lone Star College, and given master classes and lectures
internationally. She is an instructor for the Stanford e-Wakayama Program for the Stanford
Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), and a staff pianist
at the Colburn Conservatory of Music.