Kotono has received a BMus(I class), a Masters Degree with Distinction and a Dip.RAM for her Final Recital from the Royal Academy of Music where she studied with Maurice Hasson.

She has won several awards in both the UK and Japan, and was a major prize-winner in the Japan classical Competition in 1997. Kotono is very keen on playing chamber music and as a result of she has won the Decorvert Musicola 2000 International Piano Trio competition in Paris and successfully recorded a CD for Radio France.

Kotono has been invited to participate in various festivals such as Aspen Music Festival, Holland Music Session, Pacific Music Festival, ISM Prussia cove Tibor Varga, academie de Musique de Sion and Encuentro de Musica y de Santander.

Her recital engagements have taken her to Tokyo Suntory Recital Hall, London, Wales and Spain, and she has given recitals as part of the UK??s Japan 2001 and the South-West Anglo Japanese Society at the Purcell Room, Bristol Cathedral and for The Stradivari Season International Summer Festival in Malta. Orchestral experiences include trials with BBC Symphony, Ulster Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra(String Scheme) and London Metropolitan Orchestra.

Kotono's interest in playing popular music has led her to appear on TV, Radio and Music videos such as Top of the Pops, BBC Radio1 and Music videos for Her recent engagement includes performances with Damon Albarn(The Good the Bad and the Queen), Gnars Barkley,Corinne Bailey Rae, Lemar,Mika, Robyn,Simply Red and Enya.

'She has already developed that kind of musicianship that renders her performance an experience that one never tires of listening" - Sunday Times