About

Ayako has been an active member of many UGA ensembles such as the UGA Symphony Orchestra, where she has served as co-principal cellist. She has also performed in the UGA Opera Orchestra, British String Orchestra, and Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. She has accompanied other ensembles such as the Repertory Singers and the University Chorus. Ayako is a member of the MSU Concert Orchestra, where she is serving as principal cellist. 

She is passionate about performing music with nonstandard instrumentations, which led to her form the Avante Quartet (violin, cello, flute, saxophone) and Embolden (horn, cello, piano/voice). She is also passionate about performing student compositions, and she frequently premiered new compositions. Ayako has studied cello under Dr. David Starkweather.

Ayako has extensive teaching experience as a private instructor, a group instructor, and a classroom instructor. She is currently a Graduate Teaching Assistant at MSU. She has taught MUS 180/E (first year music theory), MUS 182 (Aural Skills I), and MUS 183 (Aural Skills II). In MUS 180/E, she assisted in the large lecture classes as well as holding a weekly lab where students recieved more individualized attention in smaller groups. In MUS 182/183, she leads aural skills classes twice a week.

Ayako worked as a Student Teacher at the UGA String Project for four years. In String Project, she worked with 3rd-5th graders in Clarke County and taught group music lessons covering all of the stringed instruments. She designed lessons exploring general music concepts as well as string-specific lessons. In the 2020-2021 academic year, Ayako taught her String Project classes completely over Zoom and worked with beginning students in both the fall and spring semesters.

Ayako completed her student teaching in the fall of 2022. She worked in the general music elementary classroom, where she taught musical concepts ranging from rhythm, notation, singing, handheld percussion instruments, folk dances, Orff instruments, and ukulele. Ayako holds a Georgia Teaching Certificate for PK-12 music from the Georgia Professional Standards Commission. 

Ayako has worked as the Cello Instructor at Oxford College of Emory University. She worked with first and second year non-music major cellists to continue developing technical and musical skills. Ayako also runs her own private studio, teaching cello and violin lessons in-person and online. 

Ayako’s teaching philosophy is based in the belief that all people, regardless of age, background, etc., need and deserve to study music. All students are experienced consumers of music before stepping into the classroom or a lesson, and these musical experiences should be considered and celebrated in the music curriculum. Students can analyze these familiar experiences and take away new knowledge or skills, but students also need additional, different, and supplemental experiences with music in the classroom. This can occur through studying musics of the community and of the world, creating their own musical works, and forming musical collaborations through community connections.