"The Harpsichord in the new Millennium"

Harpsichordist Asako Hirabayashi has performed as a soloist throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Performing credits include the Boston Early Music Festival; International Bach Festival (Sumy, Ukraine); International Contemporary Music Festival "Contrasts" (Lviv, Ukraine); the Festival Musicale delle Nazioni (Rome); and the concert series at Palais du Pharo (France). Her New York debut recital at Carnegie Hall was via a Special Presentation Award. In a very different debut, she was recently featured, playing Bach, on /A Prairie Home Companion./ Dr. Hirabayashi’s many grants and scholarships include the 2009-10 McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians, Irene Diamond Scholarship from the Juilliard School (where she earned a DMA in harpsichord performance), and a Subito grant from American Composers Forum. As a composer, she won first prize (2004) and honorable mention (2008) in the Alienor International Harpsichord Composition Competition, and the first prize in Japanese television network NHK's1987 Composition Competition.