Born in Nagano prefecture in the central mountains of Japan, Shino Hayashi began studying cello at the age of 5. An accomplished orchestral musician, she has performed with symphony orchestras throughout Japan and the United States including the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, the Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, and ROCO.

An avid chamber musician, Hayashi was a prize winner in the Japan Chamber Music Competition and a recipient of the Ishikawa Music Academy Award. She was a member of Cello Ensemble Saito at the World Cello Congress in St. Petersburg Russia and toured with the ensemble throughout Europe and Japan. She attended the string quartet young artist program at the Saito Kinen Festival and was chosen as a soloist to perform under the baton of Maestro Seiji Ozawa in Matsumoto, Japan.

She regularly appears throughout Japan with acclaimed violinist Takayoshi Wanami and is a teaching assistant at his summer seminars for violin and chamber music. In Houston she has also performed as a guest artist on faculty recitals at the Shepherd School of Music, the Moores School of Music, and the Texas Music Festival.

Education: Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo Japan (BM), Southern Methodist University (Artist Certificate), University of Houston (MM).