Naoko Kikuchi was born in Sendai, Japan and has lived in Frankfurt am Main, Germany since 2007. She learned to play the koto from her mother and grandmother in her early childhood. She also took lessons from Tadao Sawai and Kazue Sawai.
She is a multiple prize winner of various competitions (Nagatani Kengyo Memorial Competition for Japanese Traditional Music Award for Outstanding Achievement in 2006). In 2007 she received a one-year scholarship from the Agency of Cultural Affairs of Japan and came to Frankfurt, where she studied contemporary ensemble music at the IEMA (Internationale Ensemble Modern Akademie).
Since then she has been active in Germany. Her repertoire includes not only classical but also modern koto music. She is a versatile artist who participates in a wide variety of projects, such as “On the road in international Berlin” a project of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (2012), the new edition of “Barcelona special Edition” by Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé and the world premiere of a ballet opera by composer Adriana Hölszky at the Ballet Oper am Rhein (2014,2017-18). In 2022, Naoko performed the Koto Concerto with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra at the Bregenzfestspiele in Austria.