Maki Kubota hails from Santa Monica, California. In middle school, he signed up to play violin in orchestra, but auditioned without knowing how to play. He deservedly got assigned to the cello instead. He began lessons a few years later at the Colburn School and went on to study at the Peabody Conservatory and Rice University. His principal teachers have included Alan Stepansky and Desmond Hoebig.
Maki was appointed to the cello section of the Houston Symphony in 2017. He has also appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Dallas and Charleston Symphony Orchestras, and has collaborated with artists such as Jeremy Denk, Glenn Dicterow, Lynn Harrell, Randolph Kelly and Richard O’Neill.
He recently toured Mediterranean Europe, Mexico and Central America performing on Holland America Line through its partnership with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. In 2018, Maki traveled to Europe as part of the Houston Symphony’s tour; Colombia for its side-by-side performance with the Medellin Philharmonic as well as a faculty residency in Paipa with the Youth Philharmonic of Colombia; San Diego as a guest of La Jolla Summerfest; Santa Barbara as a guest of the Music Academy of the West; and Granada, Spain, to record for IBS Classical. He is regularly engaged as a chamber musician, teacher and recitalist, and maintains a private studio in Houston.
Teaching is very important to you. What inspires you to teach?
I find teaching to be more rewarding than performing! Let’s say I play for someone and do a good job. Hopefully I can make their day, and perhaps even inspire them for the week. But if I teach a young student to love Bach, to problem solve, to be a good person, and perhaps (God forbid) to be a music major in college, I like to think I can change the trajectory of his or her entire life, hopefully for the better. I can’t think of a more effective way of contributing to the world.
What inspired you to become a musician?
When I was about 5 years old, I was snooping through my parents’ belongings and came across a GameBoy, an archaic gaming console. I turned it on and was greeted by a string of bleeps and bloops coming from a tiny speaker: the theme music of Tetris. When I turned it off, I immediately became upset that the music had vanished. I switched the game back on and walked around with the speaker pressed against my ear for an hour until the batteries died. Something about the fleeting nature of the music gave me a profound desire to catch the notes and hold them in my hands so they could not disappear. This feeling has never left me.
What hobbies and interests do you have outside of music?
Lately, I’ve been very interested in exploring the world of fine scotch. I also love to travel, and my profession has fortunately given me many travel opportunities. My other hobbies include weight lifting and squeezing my new puppy, Pancake.
