Ayako Shirasaki

Jazz also has its prodigies: Ayako Shirasaki was only a teenager when she won numerous competitions in her native Japan and began performing regularly in Tokyo’s jazz clubs. Afer her classical training, she transferred to Kenny Barron and Ted Rosenthal at the Manhattan School of Music, quickly making a name for herself in the New York scene, and she has played with such artists as Kenny Garrett, Lewis Nash, and John Benitez. She has also toured in Germany and Japan.