"Every voice is unique because every body is different. Embrace your uniqueness, and let the world hear you for exactly who you are!"

“A tour de force”-Straits Times
“Commanding presence with powerful feelings and a voice to match.”-Opera Magazine

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Multi-award winning Japanese-American soprano Akiko is an arts practitioner, educator, and the co-artistic director of L’arietta Productions, a chamber opera company focused on bringing bite-sized contemporary operas in English. 
 
She debuted in Singapore as the leading role of Nora in John Sharpley's world premiere of Fences. Selected credits include the title role in Alice in Wonderland, Kannagi, Drusilla in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Musetta in La Boheme. A champion of contemporary work, her performance in the monodrama Diary of Anne Frank directed by Samantha Scott-Blackhall received Straits Times’ Best Opera of the year in 2015, and again in 2018 for Chen Zhangyi’s A Singapore Trilogy.

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As a vocal coach, she has worked extensively in classical, musical theatre as well as commercial studio recordings internationally, collaborating with Sony Japan, Avex, Gap Japan, and Youmeishu. Selected vocal coaching credit: Pippin, Once Upon a Mattress, Little Shop of Horrors, The Wiz, Aida, and Urinetown. She is a frequent guest clinician at VOS (Voices of Singapore), CDAS (Choral Director’s Association Singapore), Performing Arts Medicine Singapore, Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory to name a few. She holds B.M. Ed with vocal emphasis from the Hartt School (USA), and she has recently completed the Practical Voice Science for Singers and Teachers course from San Francisco Conservatory of Music as she believes in finding individual’s authentic voice through evidenced based vocal pedagogy. 

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Her musical versatility continues to bring her an eclectic collection of projects. She is currently on the voice faculty at SOTA, BA (Hon) Musical Theatre faculty at Lasalle College of the Arts, and is a full-member of NATS.