Kodama was born in Osaka, Japan in 1967 and raised in Germany and Paris, France[1] due to her father's postings in these countries as well as in Switzerland and England.

[2] She studied piano at the Conservatoire de Paris starting at age 14 under Germaine Mounier, and chamber music under Geneviève Joy-Dutilleux.

[3] She has collaborated with Tatiana Nikolaeva and Alfred Brendel,[3] as well as her sister Momo Kodama at various venues including the 2014 Festival Internacional Cervantino.

[3] In 2002, she gave her final performance of the complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle, which she presented over three consecutive seasons in Los Angeles and Pasadena, California.

She and her husband, conductor Kent Nagano, present Musical Days at Forest Hill.