Ayaka Hirahara

Overview

Ayaka Hirahara (平原綾香, born May 9, 1984 in Tokyo) is a Japanese singer-songwriter, saxophonist and actress. Nicknamed "Aya," she is best known for her 2003 debut single "Jupiter," a Japanese-language adaptation of the "Jupiter" movement from Gustav Holst's The Planets, which reached one million shipments within two and a half years. She was signed to Dreamusic, then moved to Universal Music Japan under NAYUTAWAVE RECORDS, and is now with EMI Records. She is also an acclaimed musical theater performer.

Background and Family

Hirahara comes from a musical family: her father Makoto Hirahara is a multi-reed player, her grandfather Tsutomu Hirahara was a trumpeter, and her older sister AIKA is a singer-songwriter and saxophonist based in Los Angeles. She studied classical ballet at the Matsuyama Ballet for 11 years, from first grade through her second year of high school, along with piano and swimming. She took up the alto saxophone at 13 and studied classical sax in the music course at Senzoku Gakuen High School, where she also served as student council president. Her performance as Rita in a school-festival production of Sister Act 2, singing "Joyful Joyful," caught the eye of Dreamusic's president and led to her debut. She went on to major in saxophone in the jazz course at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music, studying under Kazuhiro Ninomiya and Bob Zung, and received the President's Award on graduating in March 2007. Since 2007 she has also held family concerts with her father and sister.

Career

Debut and 2004

After her first live performance at Waseda Festival in November 2003, Hirahara made her CD debut on December 17, 2003 with "Jupiter." Adding Japanese lyrics to Holst's melody was her own idea, and some of the lyrics were written by her. The song was used in the drama Kinpachi-sensei (Season 7). Her first album ODYSSEY followed in February 2004 (released simultaneously in Korea); "Niji no Yokan" became an NTT DoCoMo commercial song in July; her first solo live took place at Zepp Tokyo in September; and she released "Blessing," the Japanese theme of the French musical The Ten Commandments, in October. After the Chuetsu earthquake in Niigata, "Jupiter" was widely requested on local radio as a song of encouragement. She won the Japan Cable Awards New Artist Prize and the Japan Record Awards Outstanding New Artist Award, and made her first appearance at the 55th NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen.

2005-2007

In 2005 her song "Ashita" became the theme of the drama Yasashii Jikan, and she won a Japan Gold Disc Award in March. While attending university she toured for her first concert tour, The Voice, and in May released "Eternally," the theme of the film Yokka-kan no Kiseki, which she co-wrote lyrics for and composed. In August she sang "Jupiter" at the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival's reconstruction-prayer fireworks. In 2006 she released "Chikai" (NHK's Torino Olympics broadcast theme), began hosting the radio show Healing Venus on TOKYO FM (until March 2019), performed her first Nippon Budokan concert at her tour finale, appeared at the Dream Power John Lennon Super Live, and released her first Christmas song, "Christmas List." In 2007 she toured with Sora, played saxophone, held her first orchestral concert, Symphonic Concert 2007, at Tokyo International Forum, and wrote lyrics for "Ima, Kaze no Naka de" (music by Joe Hisaishi), the theme of the film Mari to Koinu no Monogatari. She appeared at the Kohaku Uta Gassen every year from 2004 to 2007.

2008 onward

In January 2008 she released "Hoshitsumugi no Uta," a song supporting astronaut Takao Doi, and in February her first best-of album, Jupiter: Ayaka Hirahara Best. In October she acted for the first time in the Fuji TV drama Kaze no Garden as singer Akane Himuro, performing the theme "Nocturne"; she sang it at the 59th Kohaku in December, marking her fifth debut anniversary. From 2009 to 2011 she released the classical-themed My Classics albums, and in October 2009 she first incorporated voice percussion on "Ave Maria!Schubert." Her concert tours kept adding new challenges: voice percussion (2011), singing while tap dancing (2012) and Irish tap (2013). In 2013 she left Dreamusic for Universal Music Japan under NAYUTAWAVE RECORDS, releasing "Tsubasa" and then "Shine" (November 13, 2013), used in Koei's Nobunaga's Ambition. Her album What I Am followed on December 4, 2013 and reached No. 32 on the Oricon chart. Later albums include Winter Songbook (2014), Prayer (2015), Love (2016), Love 2 (2017) and Hajime Mashite (2019).

On stage she has played Christine Daaé in Love Never Dies (2014-2025), Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (2017-2020), Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins (2018), Yuria in Fist of the North Star (2021-2022) and Satine in Moulin Rouge! (2023-2024, 2027). She also dubbed Maria in the Japanese version of The Sound of Music for its 50th anniversary and Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins Returns. In 2020 she postponed or canceled live events due to COVID-19 and took part in numerous remote collaborations.

Musical Style

Hirahara's music blends pop with classical and jazz foundations. She is known for setting lyrics to classical melodies, such as "Jupiter" (Holst) and "Siciliana" (Bach), and her My Classics series explored the classical repertoire. She has sung many theme songs, including "Reset" for the game Okami, "Hajimari no Kaze" for the anime Saiunkoku Monogatari, "Sailing My Life" for the Disneynature film Oceans, and Joe Hisaishi's "The Name of Life" from Spirited Away. She writes lyrics and music herself and continually experiments with saxophone playing, voice percussion, tap dance and operatic singing; she cites Christina Aguilera as her "music teacher."