Ayumi Ishito was born and raised in Ishikawa, Japan. At the age of 19, she began playing tenor saxophone in a college big band at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto.

In 2007, Ayumi received a scholarship to attend Berkee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. She spent three years there studying performance and composition.

After graduating from Berklee, Ayumi moved to New York in 2010. Ayumi has been playing with many different groups. One of her recent projects Open Question with the legendary Daniel Carter received 4 stars review in DownBeat magazine in 2022.  Also her another project The Spacemen was selected for the Best Jazz of 2021 in Bandcamp.

As a composer, Ayumi has been leading her quintet since 2011 and performing her compositions. The band released two albums, “View From A Little Cave” in 2016 and “Midnite Cinema” in 2019.