Born in New York and raised in New Jersey and Tokyo, Junko began her musical studies at age 5, first on classical piano under the tutelage of Alexander Alexay, and then branched out to percussion at age 10. Junko’s primary teachers have been former Principal Percussionist of the New York Philharmonic, Walter Rosenberger, Dr. Walter Schneider, and Professor Thomas Siwe. Junko holds a Bachelor of Music Performance Degree from the University of Illinois, School of Music where she was the recipient of the Talented Undergraduate Award, the Edgar Varese Award and the Presser Scholar Award.
Junko discovered Odaiko New England at First Night Boston 2000 and started learning taiko with Odaiko New England founder and the then artistic director, Elaine Fong. Later Junko studied with Mark H Rooney and many other taiko artists such as Tiffany Tamaribuchi, Kenny Endo, KODO members Yoshikazu Fujimoto, Eiichi Saito, Chieko Kojima, Yoko Fujimoto, and Kaoru Watanabe.
Junko performs and teaches taiko regularly throughout New England and has also toured internationally with the NY-based taiko group Taikoza under the artistic direction of Marco Lienhard.
Junko has also had a long career as a sound designer for musical instrument manufacturers including Alesis, SoniVOX, Young Chang, Kurzweil Music Systems, and Hammond-Suzuki. She continues working as a sound design consultant.
