In her early 20s, she moved to Paris, France, and upon returning to the US, she enrolled at San Francisco State University, and received her BA in Music, magna cum laude, where she studied with Wayne Peterson and Eric Moe.

[11] As a kotoist, she remains active in improvisation and has performed and recorded with Pharoah Sanders, Pauline Oliveros, Gerry Hemingway, Jon Rose, Fred Frith, Larry Ochs and Maybe Monday, Steve Coleman, Anthony Braxton, Reggie Workman, Dr. L. Subramaniam, Andrew Cyrille, George E. Lewis, Jin Hi Kim, Susie Ibarra, Vijay Iyer, Myra Melford, Zeena Parkins, Toshiko Akiyoshi, William Parker, Robert Dick, Lukas Ligeti, Earl Howard, Henry Brant and many others.

People, history, memory, this geography and soundscape of nature and culture --from our human heart beat to the rhythms of the moon and oceans-- how infinitely complex yet so fundamental.” [13] She initiated and founded the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival in 1999.

[7] Myths, Modes and Means, Mystic Rhythm Society (BMG/RCA 1996) What We Live (Black Saint 1996) Suite for Koto and Jazz Orchestra (BMG, 1997.

The work was composed for Miya Masaoka) Twelve Minor (Avant 1998) Global Fusion (Erato 1999) Trancepatterns (Dendroica Music 2000) Burdocks (Tzadik 2001) Legends and Legacies (Asian Improv Records 2005) Cloud Plate (Cryptogramophone 2005) Sequel (for Lester Bowie) (Intakt), 2006) Sound Body (samadhisound 2007) With Fred Frith and Maybe Monday