[photo credit: Pasadena Presbyterian Church]
Hirata, a US-Japan Leadership Program Fellow and Global Courage Fellow, will perform Wednesday, August 20, 2025, at 12:10 p.m. as part of the church’s Music at Noon series. The accomplished concert pianist earned international recognition performing Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Bolivia as a teenager.
“When you’re on the stage, you are hyper sensitive, your awareness is on a whole different level from your day to day life… you can hear everybody sort of feeling the same thing, holding their breath… this bond that I think is unique to music,” Hirata said in a June 2022 interview on the Agile Vocalist podcast.
The 30-minute concert, held in the sanctuary at 585 E. Colorado Blvd., requires no ticket and costs nothing to attend. The venue offers wheelchair accessibility and street parking nearby.
“Music at Noon: Makiko Hirata, piano” will run on Wednesday, Aug. 20 at 12:10 p.m.-12:40 p.m. Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 585 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. For more information, call (626) 793-2191 or visit https://ppc.net/musicatnoon. Ticket prices: Free
