Doctoral Degree Recital: Alyssa Hironaka, piano

Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, Alyssa Hironaka is a Doctor of Musical Arts student at the University of Washington specializing in piano performance as a student of Craig Sheppard. Prior to venturing across the Pacific Ocean to study in Seattle, Ms. Hironaka attended the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (Master of Music, 2022 and Bachelor of Music, 2020) to study piano performance under Dr. Jonathan Korth, and worked as a graduate assistant to Dr. Elina Hamilton, Dr. Kate McQuiston, and Laurence Paxton. Ms. Hironaka's pre-college teachers include Dr. Katy Luo, Dr. Thomas Yee, and Ellen Masaki. A past participant in the Chetham's International Piano Summer School in Manchester, UK (2025), Edward Auer Online Workshop from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (2021 and 2020), and Aloha International Piano Festival in Honolulu, HI (2015 and 2016), Ms. Hironaka has performed in lessons and masterclasses by many eminent pianists such as Murray McLachlan, Joanna MacGregor, Peter Donohoe, Wu Han, Jeremy Denk, Jae-Hyuck Cho, Rachel Cheung, Dr. Momoro Ono, Edward Auer, Junghwa Moon Auer, Émile Naoumoff, Christopher Harding, Michael Chertock, Thomas Sauer, Haewon Song, Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe, and Jon Nakamatsu. 

Ms. Hironaka was awarded a gold medal at the 2019 Beijing-Hawaiʻi International Music Festival Piano Competition, second prize in the 2020 Charleston International Music Competition’s Fall Music Competition, and prizes in the Hawaiʻi State Division of the Music Teachers National Association Young Artist Piano Competition in 2020 and 2021. She has also been awarded several music scholarships and membership in the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and Golden Key International Honour Society. 

A solo and collaborative pianist with performances in Manchester (UK), Seattle, and Honolulu, Ms. Hironaka’s recent highlights include her UK debut at the Chetham's School of Music's Whiteley Hall and performances for Bellevue Opera, Punahou School’s PUEO program, the MoʻO School, the Morning Music Club of Honolulu, the Hawaiʻi Music Teachers Association, and the Hawaiʻi Flute Society. A former pianist in the University of Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Hironaka performed during All Nippon Airways (ANA) Honolulu Music Week and at the Pacific Club with renowned mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin. As a modern music appreciator, Ms. Hironaka has also recorded and premiered works by Tyler Ono, Hung Wen, Yoomee Baek, James Finamore, and Andrew Filson and was a member of Dr. Thomas Osborne’s Contemporary Music Ensemble at UH Mānoa. While taking composition lessons from Dr. Michael-Thomas Foumai and Dr. Donald Reid Womack at UH Mānoa, Ms. Hironaka composed her Opus 1: Arachnetella for piano and flute. Inspired by “Arachne and Minerva” from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Ms. Hironaka premiered Arachnetella in 2019 with flutist and former UH Mānoa Classics professor Dr. Daniel Harris-McCoy, whose course on ancient Roman literature sparked the idea for the work.  

Ms. Hironaka began teaching piano at the Masaki School of Music on July 6, 2019—10 years after her first lesson with Ellen Masaki on July 6, 2009, and now works as a substitute piano teacher at Cascade Piano Studio. A passionate arts advocate, Ms. Hironaka served as the Hawaiʻi Music Teachers Association's social media and graphics coordinator from 2018-2024 and was on the Board of Directors from 2022-2024 as media chair, webmaster, and one of several directors. Under the UH Mānoa Outreach College, Ms. Hironaka has also penned program notes for the Hawaiʻi tours of Van Cliburn International Piano Competition laureates Kenneth Broberg, Daniel Hsu, Rachel Cheung, and Dmytro Choni. 

When she is not tickling the ivories (or showing others how to), Ms. Hironaka enjoys going to concerts, engaging in photography and digital art, dancing ballet, exploring the world with boundless curiosity, and cheering on the Washington Huskies, as well as the Seattle Kraken, Torrent, Mariners, and Seahawks.