Extended Biography

Aya Sekine is a Japanese-born, Detroit-based pianist, improviser, composer, educator, visual artist, placemaker, and cultural strategist whose work spans more than three decades across Japan, Southeast Asia, and the United States. Rooted in jazz and Black American music traditions, her practice extends beyond performance into education, cultural organizing, creative advocacy, and the long-term work of building sustainable artistic communities.

Longer Story

Born into a culture-loving family in Osaka, Japan, and raised between her hometown and Singapore, Aya Sekine’s life has always revolved around music. Introduced to classical piano at a young age, she was also heavily influenced by the sounds and atmosphere surrounding her early childhood: The Sound of Music soundtrack, often in rotation at the forward-thinking home of her grandparents, where her grandfather ran a boutique selling carefully selected garments and accessories imported from Europe, alongside modern art replicas and artifacts; Japanese television and radio music programs; and the pipe organ at a neighborhood church. When her family first moved to Singapore around 1974, her senses were further awakened by the sound of different languages, the presence of diverse communities, and the vivid colors of the tropical city.

Drawn not only to melody and harmony, but also to rhythm, texture, and the feeling of the places where music is heard, she often retold stories and impressions with a keen sense of atmosphere that intrigued those around her. She was also directly influenced by her older brother, who exposed her to Western pop music and more sophisticated Japanese pop, including the genre known as “New Music.” His rock band with his friends made a strong impression on her.

During her formative years, Sekine’s curiosity for different musical styles and instruments led her to develop her rhythmic foundation as a percussionist in a school brass band. Around this time, she was invited to join a rock band, a turning point that led her toward bebop when her drummer friend James Driscoll introduced her to Jaco Pastorius’s version of “Donna Lee.” At the same time, she was listening closely to Casiopea, a band her older brother was deeply into; together, they attended their concerts and followed their activities with great enthusiasm. These experiences marked the beginning of the jazz life that lay ahead of her, leading first to the five-week summer program at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1989.

to be continued