“A most brilliant and sensitive musical talent”　

PROFILE

Acclaimed worldwide for his imagination and sensitivity, Motoki Hirai has appeared in around 100 countriesas a concert pianist, composer, artistic director, and artistic emissary, regularly giving solo recitals in prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall (New York), Wigmore Hall (London), Royal Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), and Konzerthaus (Vienna).

Motoki has broadcast internationally on radio and television (Classic FM, BBC, ITV, NHK, etc.) and has made a number of recordings on CD/DVD. Motoki is a Steinway Artist.

Whilst being a leading interpreter of the standard repertoire for piano solo, Motoki is equally at home with concertos, chamber music and lieder, shedding an inspiring and personal light on music from all periods.

Since 1989, Motoki has collaborated with internationally renowned orchestras and artists, including the Czech Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Golden Jubilee Orchestra, English National Ballet, Vilnius String Quartet, Barry Craft, Michael Cox, Kalman Berkes, Madeleine Mitchell, John Pearce, and the legendary Doudou N’Diaye Rose.

Motoki has also enjoyed giving numerous duo recitals with his cellist father, Takeichiro Hirai (a celebrated disciple of Pablo Casals), frequently performing sonatas by J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Brahms, and others.

As a composer, Motoki has been commissioned to write new works for musicians and artists in various fields, which have been performed across the globe in venues such as Carnegie Hall (NY), National Cherry Blossom Festival (Washington, D.C.); Southbank Centre, Barbican, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Dulwich Festival, Chelsea Festival, Chelsea Flower Show (London); Pegasus Theatre, Brookes Festival (Oxford); St. George’s (Bristol); Eden Project (Cornwall); Smetana Hall (Prague); Cultural Summer Festival (Bratislava); Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris (France); 2015 Expo Milano (Italy); Auditori Pau Casals (Barcelona); Cameri Theatre (Tel Aviv); Théâtre National Daniel Sorano (Dakar); Musaion Concert Hall (Pretoria); La Folle Journée, Tokyo Opera City, and NHK Hall (Japan).

In 2021, Motoki collaborated both as a composer and pianist with Eddie Jones, the former England and current Japan rugby head coach, in the documentary film, ‘A Decade of Recovery in Fukushima’.

As an artistic emissary of the Japanese government, Motoki has visited numerous countries since 1994, including France, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Romania, Israel, Palestine, Oman, Tanzania, Senegal, South Africa, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

In 2019, Motoki was appointed Dream Ambassador (Yume-Taishi) of Hirono Town in Fukushima, Japan, and Goodwill Ambassador of Reviving Old Imari (porcelain) Project at Loosdorf Castle in Austria.

In 1994, he was the guest artist at the Piano Convention in Nagano, Japan, where he gave a solo recital featuring a programme exclusively of his own works to great critical acclaim.

As part of the 2005 EU-Japan Year of People-to-People Exchanges, Motoki gave a highly successful recital on Europe Day at St. John’s Smith Square in Westminster, London, where he included the world première of his composition ‘Scenes from a Native Land’. This was later repeated in Tokyo, supported by the European Union.

To commemorate the centenary of Grieg’s death in 2007, Motoki premièred his own piano work ‘Homage to Grieg’ at venues including Wigmore Hall (London) and Tsuda Hall (Tokyo). These performances were critically acclaimed by leading newspapers such as Norway’s Aftenposten.

In 2010, Motoki published his composition ‘Homage to Chopin’ for both piano solo (1999) and piano duet (2010), commemorating Chopin’s bicentennial. He was also invited by the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society and the Embassy of Poland to give an all-Chopin recital at the Vilnius Chopin Festival as a composer-pianist.

Born in Tokyo in 1973 into a highly gifted musical family, Motoki studied piano with his pianist mother Minako Hirai; violin with his grandmother Yumiko Hirai (co-founder of Toho Gakuen School of Music); and piano, harmony and counterpoint with his grandfather, the eminent composer Kozaburo Yasuki Hirai (who studied with Mahler’s disciple Klaus Pringsheim).

After reading aesthetics and philosophy at Keio University in Tokyo, Motoki moved to London in 1996 to study at Royal Academy of Music. He later won a scholarship to continue his studies at City, University of London, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His teachers have included Frank Wibaut, Dominique Merlet, James Gibb, Patsy Toh, and Joseph Seiger.

Following his heart attack in 2020, he has devoted his work as a musician to ‘Heart’ as his life’s mission. He has recently launched a YouTube channel ‘PLAY WITH HEART’.

Over the years, Motoki Hirai has performed to promote World Peace and support Children and People in Need worldwide, in association with organizations such as the British Heart Foundation, British Red Cross, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, Japan Society, Motor Neurone Disease (ALS) Association, Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, Tohoku Earthquake Fukushima Orphans Fund, UNESCO, and UNICEF.

In 2011 Motoki was invited to Lithuania to give a goodwill charity concert commemorating Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara, who saved the lives of over 6,000 Polish Jews during World War II.

Since the Earthquake and Tsunami devastated Tohoku, Japan on 11 March 2011 (which, by a sad coincidence, was his birthday), Motoki has been giving a series of charity concerts and recitals for fundraising, supported by Steinway & Sons amongst others, across the UK, Europe, the US, and the most affected areas in Japan. He has organized and participated in over 50 charity performances, raising over £70,000 with the first three piano recitals alone.

Motoki also composed ‘Grace and Hope’ for solo piano, dedicated to the victims and survivors of the Tsunami, and gave its première at his Wigmore Hall recital. Since then, he frequently visits local schools in Fukushima and Tohoku to give concerts and workshops, sharing music with children.

Motoki has played a pivotal role in educational and cultural exchange initiatives, fostering an appreciation for arts and cultures worldwide. As the artistic director, producer, and composer of ‘The Fascinating World of Folklore and Stories – Brought to Life through Reading and Music’ since 2007, he has successfully presented a rich variety of folktales, picture books, and literature from diverse cultures to audiences in over 20 countries, encompassing 14 different languages.

He has also given masterclasses, guest lectures, and performances at the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Royal Holloway, University of London, London Business School, Oxford Brookes University, University College Dublin, University of Pretoria, Keio University, Kyoto City University of Arts, NHK Culture Centre, Jiji Press Global Top Seminar, Academy Hills, and other prestigious institutions.

Motoki has had the honour of performing for members of the Royal Family, presidents, prime ministers, and ambassadors worldwide, including Princess Diana.

In 2022, Motoki was invited by the President of Mauritius to give a Mauritius-Japan friendship piano recital at the State House. He also performed at the Japanese Ambassador’s residence, the Caudan Arts Centre, Sugar Beach, and a local High School in Mauritius.

In addition to performing, composing, directing, and teaching as well as conducting master classes and workshops globally, Motoki is also a keen photographer and writes for magazines such as Forbes Japan, Hannah Opera Magazine, Design Stories, and Euro News.

During the 2024-25 season, Motoki will tour throughout the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Norway, Canada, South America, Vietnam and his native Japan.

www.motoki-hirai.com