She is a graduate of Harvard College, from which she obtained music and French degrees while studying with Michele Auclair and Miriam Fried.
She then was awarded the David McCord Prize there as well winning the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra Concerto Competition.
She also was mentored by coaches Michele Auclair, Miriam Fried, Hyo Kang, András Keller, Robert Levin, and Marylou Speaker Churchill.
[2] She also played violin at the National Gallery of Art and Lincoln Center and performed at places as diverse as Bethlehem, Boston, Columbia, Denton, Philadelphia, the US Capitol, and Tokyo's university, where she talked on TEDx in 2012.
When not performing, Ayano Ninomiya is a Kokikai practitioner and plays a 2010 violin by living maker Mario Miralles.