Taiko has her own musical language, which comes from diverse musical
influences. Her varied musical activity is not only in classical music,
but also in jazz and other music. She plays as a soloist and with bands
in Japan, Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Colombia, Iceland and
Korea.

Taiko is the winner of the 3eme Concours International de Vibraphone
Claude Giot in October 2005, the Jazz & Blues Award Berlin 2002, where
she was additionally awarded the best audience prize. As a
Solo-Marimbist she won the 3rd prize in the world marimba competition in
Stuttgart in 1996. As a composer she received the originality award
with the composition “Landscape�W for Marimba Solo” (published by Norsk
Musikforlag) from the international Marimba Competition Belgium 2004.

Taiko was born in Sapporo Japan in 1976 and began to play marimba at age
6, piano and percussion at age 12. For 8 years she took lessons with
marimba-virtuoso Keiko Abe and studied classical Marimba and Percussion
at the Toho school of music, receiving the prestigious NTT-DoCoMo Award
in 1998.

In 1997 Taiko encountered records of David Friedman in Tokyo, which
opened up new worlds for her. After that she began to improvise and to
write music, which led her to move to Berlin, where studied vibraphone
and composition with Friedman at the Universitat der Kunste Berlin.

Taiko has concert engagements with the
Sapporo symphony orchestra and with Orchestra d´Auvergne in France.

"The duo KOKO performed, and was a pleasant surprise. The Japanese artist Taiko Saito played with Niko Meinhold, and it was hard to tell who of the two performed more brilliantly. They mostly played melodies of Japanese origins and on Vibraphone and marimba. Taiko used both bow and mallets in her performance and managed to create incredibly beautiful, charming sounds. I saw at least two Icelandic vibraphonists that attended the concert and were both very impressed, and Reynir Sigurdson that provided his instrument for this occasion remarked that "this woman is a virtuoso" and I do not have anything to add to his remarks. It was a happy and satisfied crowd that left Tjodleikhuskjallarinn 1:30 last Thursday night.”
September 30. 2005Fridrik Theodorsson Jazznews Iceland

"Auch wenn der franzosische Pianist Thibault Falk und die talentierte japanische Vibraphonistin Taiko Saito bei <<Gondwana>> klar den Ton angeben - sie stellen ihre Virtuositat stets in den Dienst der Gemeinschaft, die der deutsche Bassist Thomas Auffarth und der Schweizer Schlagwerker Marc Draeger komplettieren. Vier Freunde sollt ihr sein - dann hat die Langweile in der improvisierten Musik keine Chance. j.e.."
December 16. 2002-Berliner Morgenpost　

"Die nervenstarke Frohnatur unter den Telnehmern mit schier artistischen Qualitaten, die Japanerin Taiko Saito, erhielt fur ihre Interpretationen von "Dybuk“ und der Prism Rhapsody for Marimba von Keiko Abe den dritten Preis."
June 4. 1996-Stuttgarter Nachrichten