Makiko Hirata

Makiko Hirata

Makiko Hirata, DMA

  • Instructor, Stanford e-Wakayama
  • Instructor, Stanford e-Entrepreneurship Japan
  • Instructor, Entrepreneurship and Sustainability for Eikei University of Hiroshima

Biography

Dr. Makiko Hirata is the instructor of Stanford e-Wakayama, Stanford e-Entrepreneurship Japan, and Entrepreneurship and Sustainability for Eikei University of Hiroshima. 

An international pianist with ten released albums, Dr. Hirata is also known as “Dr. Pianist.” With a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rice University, she is 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. She is a US-Japan Leadership Program Fellow, a founding member of TEMPO: Music for Climate Action, and a recipient of the Coeuraj 2022 Global Courage Fellowship, which honors industry leaders around the world whose work focuses on building trust in an era of polarization.

Japanese-born Dr. Hirata has lived in the United States since she was accepted to the Juilliard School Pre-College Division at the age of 13. She 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. 

In The News

Memorial Court
News

Application Now Open for Stanford e-Entrepreneurship Japan Spring 2024

Applications are now being accepted for the spring 2024 session. Interested high school students in Japan should apply by March 15, 2024.
cover link Application Now Open for Stanford e-Entrepreneurship Japan Spring 2024
group photos of student honorees
News

SPICE Honors Top Students in 2022–2023 Regional Programs in Japan

Congratulations to the 2022–2023 student honorees from Fukuoka, Kawasaki, Kobe, Oita, Tottori, and Wakayama.
cover link SPICE Honors Top Students in 2022–2023 Regional Programs in Japan
Stanford e-Entrepreneurship Japan honorees with their instructors
News

Ceremony Held for the Top Students in the 2022 Stanford e-Entrepreneurship Japan Courses

Applications for the fall 2023 course are due on September 8, 2023.
cover link Ceremony Held for the Top Students in the 2022 Stanford e-Entrepreneurship Japan Courses