Makiko Hirata

Musician on a Mission!

We musicians are not driven by the profit. What drives us is the power of the arts. We are on a mission to promote humanity with our faith in the power of beauty. We have gotten into our profession, knowing that our future was going to be uncertain, our income insecure, and competition fierce. Covid-19 does not faze us. There are some theaters and concert presenters who have already announced the next season with spread-out seating, knowing that they will go into the red. Many artists are offering contents on line for free.

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An Eventful Week: Hiking, New Mics, Podcast Appearances….

This week was full, both in terms of my personal life, as well as with global news that keep alerting me to be more aware, more responsible, more conscientious, more active and compassionate… I kept feeling like I wasn’t doing enough, not learning fast enough, not doing/thinking/feeling enough…And I also had my life and career to keep spinning. So…

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On Stereotype Threat: Prejudice I Struggled with as an Asian Female Pianist.

Stereotype threat is a term that is yet to become a part of our daily vocabulary, but the concept is something that is too familiar to me and so many others. You are so afraid of confirming a negative stereotype (e.g. “Girls can’t do math,” “White men can’t jump,” etc.) that the pressure of defining the stereotype ends up undermining your ability, even if you don’t subscribe to the stereotype yourself, and even if you can perform perfectly well without the pressure. It works as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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White Patriarchy in Classical Music and Blind Tom

My dissertation was on the genesis of memorization as a piano performance practice, an astonishingly unexplored historical topic. Initially, I had no intention of making any statement about social/historical injustice on racial and gender inequality. I chose the topic for purely musical interest. It turned out to be an extremely complicated subject I needed to contextualize within the major technological, political, aesthetic, and philosophical movements of the nineteenth century. For the purpose of this blog, I will say (although this is a gross generalization) that memorization became a way for non-composing performers – often women, child prodigies and/or ethnic minorities – to transform themselves as conduits to the canonized white male composers.

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