For more than 2 decades Yuichi Hirakawa has been playing drums in U.S.A. at Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA. He studied jazz drums with Joe Hunt and Jon Hazilla. Outside of the school curriculum, he joined several bands and performed at several venues such as the Willow Jazz Club, Middle East Cafe, and Copley Square Hotel. 

Yuichi moved to New York City and earned M.A. in jazz performance at The City College of New York, CUNY, NY. There he studied jazz and contemporary drums with Charli Persip and Kim Plainfield and jazz performance in general with Grammy award winning bassist Ron Carter. 

Currently, as a full-time freelance drummer, he performs at various live music venues in New York City, and around Tri-state area as well.  His own jazz band has performed at Arthur’s Tavern in Greenwich Village every Tuesday since September 2001. Yuichi has also appeared at the Blue Note Jazz Club in both New York and also in Tokyo several times and the Birdland Jazz Club in New York.

He has toured in Tokyo and Kyushu, Japan, and performed at the April Jazz Festival in Finland. He plays jazz, R&B, funk, blues, rock, Brazilian and afro-Cuban music.

John Scofield, Larry Carlton, John Abercrombie, Robben Ford, John Petrucci (Dream Theatre), Percy Heath (MJQ), Ron Carter, Donald Byrd, and Barry Harris, Yoshiaki Masuo, Satoshi Inoue are among some of the more notable musicians that Yuichi has performed with.