Friday, April 7
6:30 p.m.
Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel

Kyoshiro Hirama, Masters Degree in Piano

Born in 1998, in Osaka, Japan, Kyoshiro Hirama began his piano studies at age 4 and continued piano studies with Claudio José Lisboa Soares and Makoto Ueno while he studied science in high school. At the age of 16, he decided to pursue classical piano performance as his career path of choice and came to the United States when he was 18 years old. Hirama completed his Bachelor of Music degree under Stanislav Ioudenitch at the International Center for Music at Park University in Parkville, MO. Currently, he continues to study at Park University as a graduate student.

He performed with an orchestra for the first time when he was 10 and made his first solo recital when he was 13. After starting his musical career, Hirama has performed a substantial number of concerts in Japan and in the United States, Brazil, Uzbekistan, and Portugal as well. His most prestigious concerts were CHANEL Pygmalion Days, which is a concert series presenting artists selected annually to perform five concerts in a year at CHANEL NEXUS HALL in Tokyo, Japan. He has also collaborated with Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, Sao Paulo Youth Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan and so on.

Hirama has received a lot of competition prizes, including 5th prize at Sendai International Music Competition, semi-final placings at Ferrol International Piano Competition and Istanbul International Piano Competition Orchestra’ Sion, Gold medals at PTNA piano competition in three age categories, as well as 2nd prize and Public Award at Student Music Competition of Japan. His numerous awards and scholarships include Yamaha Music Scholarships in 2017-2019, Kansas City Musical Club Scholarship in 2022 and 2023, Sigma Alpha Iota Scholarship in 2022, Osaka Governor Awards and the Neyagawa-city Meritorious Service Awards.