Ayako Ogawa　小川斐子

Born in Hakodate (Hokkaido, JAPAN) in 1962, Ayako Ogawa started playing the piano from 1968. She has been involved in theater since 1970. Experiences in piano and drama are the basis for her improvised music. Originally, she is an expert in early childhood education. Her talent in improvisation has been developed through encounters with musicians or artists. Graduated from Hakodate childcare academy in 1982, Ayako started her career as a nursery teacher. In 2002, after working at a nursery school for 20 years, she established and run a small day-care center for children, called "Kobito no Mori," to realize her ideal education for infants. In the day-care center, children and she had been interacted with nature (flowers, grass, insects, frogs, fishes and so on), played with water, played in sand or snow, did cooking, painted pictures, made original picture books, took part in dramas, did improvising with folk instrument, and ate slow food lunch together. In 2008, she got a chance to work as a support member for students with special needs in an elementary school. Since 2012, she has been working at children's center of Hakodate city as an adviser for children from babies to teenagers and their mothers. Meeting with Deku in 1998 became her starting point as a musician. He was a jazz bassist, who studied contrabass with Masahiko Togashi. He is not only a musician but also an artist. Influenced by him, Ayako wrote songs, organized poetry readings, and published original picture books while working as a teacher.