Taku Hirano has performed as a solo artist and as one half of the duo Tao Of Sound.
14 Facts About Taku Hirano
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Taku Hirano has toured with Fleetwood Mac and Whitney Houston as a percussionist.
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Takuya "Taku" Hirano was born in Osaka, and grew up in Fresno, California and Hong Kong.
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Taku Hirano attended Hong Kong International School and graduated from Roosevelt School of the Arts at Theodore Roosevelt High School, where he studied orchestral percussion, jazz, Afro-Cuban jazz, and salsa music.
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Taku Hirano then attended Berklee College of Music, studying under Giovanni Hidalgo and Jamey Haddad, graduating in 1995 with a Bachelor of Music as the college's first Hand Percussion principal.
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Taku Hirano has studied drum set with Alan Dawson and Leon "Ndugu" Chancler, as well as in Havana, Cuba with Changuito.
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Taku Hirano has recorded with Dr Dre on 2001, Fleetwood Mac, Whitney Houston, Jay-Z, The Temptations, Hikaru Utada, Stevie Nicks, LeAnn Rimes, Josh Groban, Chromeo, Ziggy Marley, Emmanuel Jal, Nelly Furtado and Lionel Richie, in addition to working on major motion picture soundtracks.
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Taku Hirano is a regular visiting artist at Hugh Hodgson School of Music at University of Georgia, and an ongoing regular guest artist, speaker and panelist at his alma mater, Berklee College of Music.
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In 2018 and 2019, Taku Hirano toured with Fleetwood Mac on their An Evening with Fleetwood Mac World Tour.
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Taku Hirano served as the percussionist in the house bands for the Fox television shows Showtime at the Apollo and The Four: Battle for Stardom.
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Taku Hirano endorses Meinl percussion instruments, Zildjian cymbals, Remo drum heads, Vater Percussion drum sticks, Drum Workshop drums and hardware, and Roland Corporation electronic percussion.
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On July 16,2021, Taku Hirano released his debut single on Ropeadope Records, "Come And Get It" featuring jazz trumpeter Keyon Harrold.
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On October 1,2021, Taku Hirano released his debut album "Blu York - Live in NYC" on Ropeadope Records, recorded live at the Nublu Club in New York City in 2020.
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Taku Hirano has been a percussionist on many tours since the late 1990s.