Nika Ko got their start as a jazz pianist in Portland, Oregon. They competed on the national level in bands and as a soloist, then went to Berklee College of Music with the Berklee World Tour Scholarship. There, they studied both piano performance and film scoring with Ruth Mendelson, Grammy winner Claudio Ragazzi, NEA jazz master Joanne Brackeen, and Grammy winner Terri Lyne Carrington.

 

Ko was hired as a composer assistant while still at school by Terri Lyne Carrington. They also wrote and performed several of their pieces at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 2022 and have performed for Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter. Ko scored their first film during their last semester of college, a feature length documentary about the Bollywood film industry entitled "Dream Factory." They followed that with their score for the horror/comedy short "Red Dot Special."

 

After finishing their Bachelor's degree, Ko was hired by Berklee Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice to work as their Media and Communications Assistant. They became  established as a keyboardist on the Boston scene, gigging with Atlantic Shake, New England's top rated wedding band, and and other Boston artists including Samantha Ferrell, the Rubin Brothers, Devon Gates, Fall Raye, and more. Ko has recorded as a sideman on two projects in the jazz genre: David Macchione's independently released album "Burnt Roots," and Fall Raye's album "Fall," which recently released on Boomslang Records.

 

Currently  based in LA, they work as a keyboardist and freelance composer for films and other visual media.