Composer and pianist Makia Matsumura has built a dynamic career spanning film scoring, concert music, and live silent film accompaniment. Her music has been featured on ABC News, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), Turner Classic Movies, and Netflix, as well as at venues including Lincoln Center (NYC), Musikverein (Vienna), Konzerthaus (Berlin), and NHK and Suntory Halls (Tokyo).

A Tokyo native, Makia began studying piano and composition at six and made her debut as a composer-performer at twelve. She has performed internationally with orchestras such as the Hungarian National Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, and the Tokyo and Kyoto Symphony Orchestras. She earned a bachelor’s degree in composition from Tokyo University of the Arts and a master’s degree from The Juilliard School, where she won the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s First Hearing Competition and had works premiered by the Juilliard Symphony.

Since discovering the art of silent film accompaniment in 2003, she has become one of the most sought-after pianists in the field. She has performed at MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and the Library of Congress, as well as the National Film Archive of Japan. In 2018, she was invited as a Faculty Artist at the Art of the Piano festival at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, where she lectured on silent film accompaniment and improvisation.

Makia also provides recorded scores for silent film restorations and home video releases, including Kino Lorber’s Pioneers of African-American Cinema (2015) and Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers (2018), as well as the 2024 restoration of The Dragon Painter from Milestone Films.

Makia was first introduced to the art of silent film accompaniment in 2003, when she was invited to perform as one of the pianists for OZU 100, a centennial anniversary retrospective of the legendary Japanese filmmaker, Yasujiro Ozu, at the National Film Center (now the National Film Archive of Japan). Among the films featured were 16 surviving silent films by Ozu, and Makia was assigned to accompany I Was Born, But…, a masterpiece she had never seen or heard of before. Little did she know the significance of this assignment, as it was her first encounter with silent films and live performance. Fortunately, the same retrospective was presented in New York before her assignment, and she attended as many screenings as possible to experience and learn about live silent film accompaniment.

The renowned Donald Sosin was playing for all 16 films during the retrospective, and after one screening, Makia introduced herself to him and asked for advice on how to start in this craft. Donald generously shared his wisdom and guidance, which helped her complete her assignment successfully.

Makia’s first public performance of I Was Born, But… in Tokyo left a lasting impact and a sense of euphoria. Until that moment, she had always felt torn between composing and performing. But seated at the piano before the large silver screen, her stage fright evaporated, and she felt entirely at ease with this art form — as if all her skills had prepared her just for this moment. Everything clicked. From that day forward, she has been “hooked.”

Back in New York, Makia immersed herself in silent film events, and her passion for the craft only deepened. Eventually, Donald recommended her to participate in the prestigious Pordenone Masterclass at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in 2007, which opened the door to her U.S. career. She has since become a regular pianist for official silent film screenings at MoMA, performing alongside Donald Sosin. Her other performance credits include the George Eastman House, the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, the American Film Institute, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Columbia University, and New York University, among others.

Makia has also become an active collaborator with benshi — the traditional Japanese silent film narrators — most frequently with Ichiro Kataoka, considered to be the best contemporary benshis, since 2013. Together, they have performed at Film Forum, Bard College, and Yale University. In 2024, she joined The Art of the Benshi world tour, presented by the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities and the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Alongside Kataoka, two other benshi and musicians from Japan, the tour received enthusiastic acclaim.