Today we’d like to introduce you to Asako Hirabayashi.
Hi Asako, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I have a disability called selective mutism and could not talk at all outside of my home when I was young. I was silent at school, so my teacher called my parents, thinking I was deaf or mute. My mother really worried about me and took me to a music school so that I would have something I could enjoy by myself at home. Nobody in my family is a musician, so if I did not have a disability, I would not have been introduced to musical instruments.
I majored in piano in high school, but, my hands were so small that I had to give up on piano and I majored in composition in college. Later, I discovered the harpsichord, which has a smaller keyboard than the piano, and I came to the United States 35 years ago to become a harpsichord player. I earned a doctoral degree in harpsichord performance at the Juilliard School and debuted at Carnegie Hall in New York. It seemed everything was going perfectly until the following year, when my daughter was born with a severe disability. So my performance career became very limited, and I went back to composition. My first commercial CD, on which I composed and played all the music, received 7 favorable reviews internationally. One of the reviews is: “Twenty-four tracks of passionate, sparkling, lyrical, even poignant music to help secure the harpsichord’s presence in the new millennium…”Her contemporary harpsichord music is ingenious, fanciful, diverse, and unpretentious… I admit I’ve never been a fan of the harpsichord, she has changed all that for me and awakened me to the idea that a composer can reinvent an instrument…” (Fanfare, 2010).
It made me compose more, and my mission as a musician matured. When I was just wanting to be a harpsichordist, my purpose was just “to play somebody’s music perfectly”. However, through living in two countries (born and raised in Japan) and through motherhood and a failed marriage, my endeavor as a musician has changed. My passion is to advance my mission and deliver my message, introducing Japanese culture and instruments and sharing my experiences with audiences on many levels through my works. I wrote 5 operas and 33 chamber pieces, which have been played in 15 countries. Currently I am wroking on a ballet music.
My theatrical works, which I write story, libretto, and music are to address important societal issues such as diversity, discrimination, segregation, adoption, people with disabilities, fear of the “other”, danger of collective acts, violence, abuse, the power of benevolence and unconditional love, coexistence of nature and human beings and ecological balance.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I was overwhelmed by the difficulty of raising my children. My daughter was born with severe disabilities. The doctors are amazed that she has been able to survive this rare brain disorder called lissencephaly, because children with this disease usually only live 2 to 3 years at most. I also adopted a 4-year-old boy from a facility in Japan.
It was extremely painful to see my daughter suffer from seizures many times every day, and I was constantly frightened that she might die. Not only that, but I also had to deal with the pain of having to give up all of my dreams in order to take care of my daughter, who had no future. The thing that was the most difficult part of raising her was wondering why she had to suffer through so many seizures every day, even though she would never be able to live a normal life. And why she had even been born into this world, when her life would be so short. My daughter is really cute and kind, she shows me endless love every day, and she says thank you for all the little things. Sometimes when I’m tired and lying down, regardless of how difficult it is for her to move at all, she covers me with a blanket. Despite being born with a physical challenge and being unable to do what she wants to do or say what she wants to say, she graciously accepts her fate. She doesn’t blame anyone or get angry, she doesn’t complain or express dissatisfaction, but instead she shows her love and gratitude to everyone around her. Through her attitude, I have learned how much I lack as a human being. Because of my daughter, I have been able to reflect on how, despite being blessed with talent and health and support, I was filled with frustration and anger. I had always been angry at hierarchy and male-dominated society in Japan. I have realized that the reason my daughter was born was to truly help someone like me. In this world, there are many people who suffer from numerous physical challenges or illnesses, but I realized that by influencing others around them, those people are the ones who can teach us the most important things about the most beautiful parts of life, about helping each other. I realized that it’s not about people who are powerful or important, but rather that it’s the weak people who have the power to truly change society, by making those around them better human beings. They’re born with physical challenges for that purpose. If I didn’t have a physically challenged daughter, I would have ended up still being an ignorant person to this day, just like when I was younger.
I realized for the first time just how beautiful, how important, and how sacred every life, every lifetime is, and I was able to love myself, for who I am, without the education, without the fame, with nothing but my true self. At that moment, I was released from the rage I had felt toward the world since I was a child. That was the moment I was freed from my insecurity. Also, my son was unwanted by anyone and from the day he was born, he grew up in an orphanage. Then, via a US adoption agency, he became part of our family at the age of four. He was deeply hurt by the divorce my ex-husband and I went through, refusing to go to school, suffering depression and become Hikikomori (withdrawing to his room ) for 10 years. But he overcame his background and the challenges of his upbringing, and he is now training in the military. I’m so proud of my son, who accepted the painful fact that he was born undesired by anyone and chose a profession where he is offering his life to other people and this country, rather than just working for his own benefit. If I hadn’t been blessed with these two children, no matter how many superficial accomplishments I had, I would have lived a lonely and empty life.Those experiences are assets in my music making. I want my music and story to touch people the way all people around me touched me. I want to devote my life to impacting minds and hearts in hopes of bringing people together through my works which can be an important means to engage audiences and can be cathartic.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a harpsichordist, keyboardist, composer, arranger, producer, and educator and versatile musician. I have produced more than 2 dozen free concerts in MN, collaborating with not only classical musicians but also Jazz, Latin, Pop, Arabic, Japanese, African and other musicians and dancers since I moved to MN in 2001. I founded the first Japanese children’s folk dancing group Thunder Wave in 2012 to preserve and introduce Japanese traditional folk dance combining contemporary pop music to MN, have arranged performances using Japanese instruments. My shows are given at concert halls, parks, schools, streets, farmers markets to make them available for everybody. Born and raised in Japan, I am a first-generation immigrant and a parent of an adopted son and daughter with significant disabilities. My passion is to fulfill my mission and deliver my message, introducing Japanese culture and instruments and sharing my experiences with audiences at many levels through my work.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I can play the washboard.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.asakohirabayashi.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hirabayashi.asako/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/asako.hirabayashi.16
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asako-hirabayashi-8a526334/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KWHoVm9iAs&list=RD-KWHoVm9iAs&start_radio=1
