Akiko Sato graduated from the Department of Musicology, Faculty of Music, Tokyo University of the Arts, where she studied the lute with the late Keisuke Sakon and Shigeo Mito. She continued her studies with Konrad Junghänel at the Hochschule für Musik Köln in Germany, where she obtained a soloist diploma, and subsequently studied with Hopkinson Smith at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland.

Until 2010, she served as a research and teaching assistant in the Early Music Department at Tokyo University of the Arts. As a recipient of the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Overseas Study Programme for Emerging Artists, she studied Baroque guitar with Xavier Díaz-Latorre in Barcelona.

In addition to her work as a soloist, she has performed extensively as a continuo player with singers and instrumentalists, as well as in numerous Baroque opera productions. She also performs with Ex Novo, an early music ensemble directed by Yasuharu Fukushima, specialising in sacred music from the late Renaissance to the Baroque period. Since 2018, she has performed in the early music duo Tamahibi with Paris-based singer Michiko Takahashi; their CD Tamahibi was released in 2021.

In 2024, she began performing as a member of the all-female early music ensemble Ensemble Poesia Amorosa. Their CD Poesia Amorosa was released by Waon Records in 2025 and was selected as a recommended recording in the Asahi Shimbun’s “for your Collection”.

As the first project to receive support from the Taito City Arts and Culture Support Programme, she produced the musical narrative The John Dowland Story in 2009, which was warmly received. For the Spring Festival in Tokyo, she has also created and performed programmes in conjunction with major exhibitions, including The British Museum Exhibition (2015), The Prado Museum Exhibition (2018), Western Painting: Where Do We Look? (2025), and Swedish Painting: Nordic Light and the Radiance of Everyday Life (2026).

She performed solo works for lute and vihuela on NHK’s Lalala Classic: Melodies that Healed the Warlords of the Sengoku Period (2019). Her lute playing has also been featured in theatrical productions, NHK radio dramas, and the Amazon Prime Video series MAGI: The Tensho Embassy to Europe.

Her solo recordings include Lullaby – English Renaissance Lute Music (2014) and Alessandro Piccinini: Tablatures for Chitarrone and Lute (2023), the latter selected as a recommended recording in the Asahi Shimbun’s “for your Collection”. Her third solo CD, Le Tombeau des Muses, devoted to French Baroque lute music, will be released by Waon Records in October 2026.

She teaches lute at the Eisenach Music Academy in Tokyo and runs Atelier l’akko.