Taku Hirano’s Career Is Defined by Identity
Taku Hirano BM ’95 MA ’24
Image courtesy of the artist
Performer, percussionist, professor, product collaborator: Taku Hirano BM ’95 MA ’24 has built a career that knows no bounds. The 2026 Berklee Alumni Achievement Award recipient has toured with Fleetwood Mac, Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston, and LeAnn Rimes, and performed at the White House as well as the Grammy Awards. These days, he teaches music business and creative industry studies at Tulane University, and he recently celebrated the gold-edition release of the Hand-Bale, his award-winning signature percussion instrument.
In March 2026, he played Japanese taiko drums at the World Baseball Classic championship game—on just 12 hours’ notice. “I flew to Miami, built an asynchronous video lecture on sync licensing from my hotel room so students wouldn't miss a beat, then went and performed for 10 million viewers,” Hirano said. “The classroom travels with me.”
Even with that range, he continues to expand his work in new directions. March also marked the debut of Hirano’s first solo album under his own name, Crystal Forest, in collaboration with Feed Media Group, where he serves as lead composer. The ambient music album, “designed for relaxation and focused attention,” is “the culmination of years of research and compositional work.”
Project Highlight: Crystal Forest
The 10-song album builds directly on his Berklee master’s thesis, Music as Medicine, which “explored the science and market viability of functional music across wellness, medicine, and technology. Every compositional decision on this record is grounded in that research.”
Earlier compositions include two sample libraries for Splice, which “put my sounds in the hands of bedroom producers worldwide,” and more than 300 pieces under the pseudonym Akai Masa for Feed Media clients such as Tonal and Alo Moves.
Another influence for Crystal Forest was Hirano’s participation in the Mandala Lab for the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art. “Alongside Peter Gabriel, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Laurie Anderson, Billy Cobham, and Sheila E., I was asked to choose a gong, sourced to my own specifications, as part of the traveling experiential installation inspired by Buddhist principles.” He called the experience “a meaningful validation” that further spurred the album’s creation.
Listen to Crystal Forest by Taku Hirano:
Hirano grew up in Fresno, California, and started studying percussion at age nine. His family moved to Hong Kong when he was a pre-teen, which led to private lessons with the principal percussionist of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Back in Fresno to finish high school at Roosevelt School of the Arts, he discovered hand drums—“I didn't know it at the time, but those two years set the direction for everything that followed,” he said.
At Berklee, Hirano studied percussion with conga master Giovanni Hidalgo and jazz and world percussion specialist Jamey Haddad, who imparted “extraordinarily intricate and complex systems that gave me an entirely different way of thinking about rhythm.” During his studies, hand percussion was formally recognized as a principal instrument, and Hirano became the first to graduate with it as his focus.
Listen to an interview with Taku Hirano:
He furthered his education at the California Institute of the Arts and the Escuela Nacional de Artes in Havana, Cuba, where he conducted research on Afro-Cuban secular styles through a US Treasury Department program. Later, he returned to Berklee, earning an online master's degree in music business (and his functional music thesis). “Staying closely informed on sync, copyright, intellectual property, and AI developments in the music industry has opened doors—media appearances, academic opportunities, and conversations I never saw coming,” Hirano shared.
Five Truths About Making It in Music
Insights from Taku Hirano
Being good at your instrument is just the entry fee. “It’s the intangibles that keep you working: Dependability. Keeping your word. Being prepared. Showing up—and showing up on time. Getting along with everyone in the room. Skill gets you in the door; everything else determines whether you stay.”
Your instrument is not your career—your identity is. “The most in-demand musicians I’ve worked with aren’t just technically strong. They have a distinct identity that makes them irreplaceable. My performances, my research, my ambient composition work—those aren't separate careers. They're one coherent identity built over decades.”
The music business rewards breadth as much as depth. “The most durable careers belong to musicians who make themselves genuinely versatile across genres, traditions, and contexts. None of my career has come from a narrow lane.”
Copyright is not a legal issue—it's a business strategy. “Understanding how your work is owned, licensed, and monetized is foundational. The rise of AI has made this more urgent than ever. If you don't understand who owns what you create, someone else will decide for you.”
Teaching is performing. “The best educators approach the classroom the way a great musician approaches the stage: with preparation, presence, and the ability to respond in real time. If you're ever in a position to pass on what you know, take it just as seriously as the music.”
Though his résumé encompasses a wide range of projects and pursuits, Hirano sees it as a single, evolving practice.
“My Berklee master’s thesis gave shape and context to the functional music work I had been developing in parallel,” he said. “Teaching became another dimension of the same career. For me, the research and the work have always been the same thing.”
Learn more at taku.ninja, follow Hirano on Instagram and LinkedIn, and check out Hirano playing and discussing his signature Hand-Bale.
