Ayako Oya

After graduating from Toho Girls' High School Music Department, she moved to the United States.
She won a full scholarship and she entered the Ohio State University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.
She then went to Hungary where she studied chamber music at the Budapest Liszt Conservatory.
On the recommendation of her former teacher, Walter Levin, when she was in Cincinnati, she entered the Basel Musikhochschule in Switzerland.

She has a Diploma in Music Education and a Performer's Diploma at the top of her class. While still in school, she became a member of the Basel Symphony Orchestra.
In 1997 she became a violist with the Lyon National Opera Orchestra in France.
While performing in the orchestra, she received the Soloist Diploma from the Lucerne University of Music in Switzerland with first place.

She was invited to join the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra where she served as Associate Principal Viola from April 2015 to August 2016.
In September 2016 she returned to the Orchester National de Lyon.
In May 2022, she formed Ensemble KOKOLO, hoping to create a world where people can respect each other and create a wonderful harmony beyond borders and races.