Hitomi Tono'ka (vibraphone/marimba) was born in 1971, in Nagoya, Japan.
She began playing marimba and piano at 5 years of age, and also played in her
high school marching band. She then traveled to the United States,
where she began playing jazz.
After a return to Japan, Hitomi studied marimba with Keiko Abe
at Toho University of Music in Tokyo. In 1997 went to U.S. again and
studied at William Paterson University in New Jersey, where she earned
a Bachelors of Music degree in Jazz studies in 2001. Among her many
teachers and faculty mentors at William Paterson were cutting edge jazz
artists, including Kevin Norton, Harold Mabern, Rufus Reed, and Richard
DeRossa.
While performing/composing with her own U.S. band, she became a member of
Fred Ho's world famous Afro-Asian Music Ensemble, and Kevin Norton's
Metaphor Quartet. Hitomi studied Music Therapy at The New School,
Manhattan, NY. Following her experience in the September 2001 9/11 attack
in New York, she decided to return to Japan. Sine 2010, Hitomi has been to Ghana,
West Africa, and studied traditional African song, dance, and instrumental music
with master drummer Yaw Daniel Okyere and Tidjan Dorwana, Bernard Woma Her
studies there included the gyl wooden marimba, which she performs in concert,
one of the few jazz artists to do so in the world. She has been energetically
teaching, composing, and performing around Nagoya area, including many original
collaborations with multidisciplinary artists - visual arts, poetry, and dance.