Makiko Hirata [photo credit: Pasadena Presbyterian Church]
The recital is part of Music at Noon, the series Pasadena Presbyterian Church presents free to the community in its sanctuary every Wednesday at 12:10 p.m. This one runs from 12:10 p.m. to 12:40 p.m. on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, according to the church’s own published Music at Noon listing, which carries it under the title Music at Noon: Makiko Hirata, Piano.
Hirata was last scheduled in the series on January 28, 2026. Her own website lists an earlier Music at Noon recital on August 20, 2025, though that date does not appear on the church’s current schedule. As of July 27, 2026, no program had been published for Wednesday’s recital.
According to her faculty biography at the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education, where she is an instructor, Hirata holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rice University, has released ten albums, and collaborates with neuroscientists to measure the benefits of music. The same biography says she is Japanese-born and has lived in the United States since she was accepted to the Juilliard School Pre-College Division at 13.
Her biography page, last updated in February 2024, describes her as a staff pianist at the Colburn Conservatory of Music and says she has performed at Carnegie Hall and Ozawa Hall.
Pasadena Presbyterian Church was the first church in Pasadena, established in 1875, and has stood at East Colorado Boulevard and North Madison Avenue since 1908, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy. The sanctuary where Hirata will play was completed in 1976 to a design by architect John Gougeon, after the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake damaged the previous building.
The church says the series presents local, national and international instrumental and vocal artists across classical, jazz and world music. Friends of Music, the organization that produces concerts for the church, describes music as one of the most important ministries of the congregation. Pianist Seokmin On is scheduled for August 19, 2026 and soprano Judith Siirila Paskowitz for August 26, 2026, and the church’s listing notes that performers are subject to change.
The concert is at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 585 East Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91101. Admission is free, and the church lists no ticket or registration requirement. Friends of Music says the City of Pasadena has imposed parking limits on the streets around the campus and that paid lots operate nearby at 44 North Madison Avenue, at the Trio Apartments; 40 South Oakland Avenue; 44 South Madison Avenue; and 473 East Union Street. The free street-parking periods the organization cites — all day Sunday and after 8:00 p.m. daily — do not apply at midday on a Wednesday. Foothill Transit, Pasadena Transit and Metro buses stop in front of the church at Colorado Boulevard and Madison Avenue or at stops a few minutes’ walk away, and the church is a 15-minute walk from the Metro A Line’s Memorial Park and Lake stations. Information: (626) 793-2191 or https://www.ppc.net/musicatnoon.
Half an hour, no charge, in a sanctuary this congregation completed in 1976 to replace the one an earthquake had damaged five years before.
