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‘Writing this tune was a very emotional process’
MAKIKO HIRABAYASHI talks to Chris Searle about her elegiac reflection on the Fukushima tsunami
EVER INVENTIVE: Makiko Hirabayashi

COSMOPOLITAN to her very musical core, pianist Makiko Hirabayashi was born in Tokyo in 1966. Her mother was a pianist and English teacher and her father worked in the motor industry.

They moved to Hong Kong, where Hirabayashi spent her teenage years imbibing electropop, new wave, punk, reggae, rock and the classics before gaining a scholarship to Berklee jazz conservatoire, where she became fascinated by Boston’s live music scene and was inspired by pianists Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner and Joe Zawinul.

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