Since 2015, the Shiki Percussion duo, formed by Dan deSimone and Ayami Okamura, has been committed to expanding the percussion repertoire with new music through innovative arrangements and compositions of a wide range of musical styles and collaboration with living composers from around the world. Their current projects include a publication for Georg Philipp Telemann’s “Twelve Fantasias for Viola da Gamba solo” collaborating with Kostadin Delinikolov and the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, a fresh arrangement of Simeon Ten Holt’s "Lemniscaat" for mallet ensemble with the Detmold Percussion Group, and a new anthology project “Harmonize” aimed at a more inclusive and multicultural expression of the present percussion repertoire. Presently, the "Harmonize" project has commissioned works by composers from Ukraine, Serbia, USA, South Africa and Taiwan.

Shiki has performed throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan and been featured at several international festivals such as Southern California Marimba (California, USA), Ivana Summer Percussion Festival (Samobor, Croatia), FRAKZIONEN Festival (Bielefeld, Germany) and Zeltsman Marimba Festival (New Jersey, USA). They have also presented masterclasses in universities and colleges worldwide and are founders of the Detmold Percussion Group.