Satomi started playing orchestral percussion at the age of 12, then studied jazz drumming with maestro, Takeshi Inomata in Tokyo. She has played extensively in Japan with the Soulful Unity Jazz Orchestra and her groups, Vivace and Jackpot, the latter winning two major jazz contests. Satomi won the Best Player Award at the 1993 Asakusa Jazz Contest and her group was then twice invited to perform at the Manley Jazz Festival. In Adelaide, she plays regularly with Black Fedora Jazz as well as with several other ensembles covering blues, Latin and Bulgarian music styles. She joined the Brendan Fitzgerald Trio in 2012 and performed with the group in Beijing, Shanghai and at the Hong Kong Performing Arts Centre Street Concert. Satomi has appeared twice at The Hoot!, Adelaide Hills Jazz Festival and at 2014 The Clare Valley Carnival of Music performing with Brendan Fitzgerald and Svilen Panayatov accordian duo, Latin-jazz group Ah Hum! and holding her own multi-cultural percussion session/workshop.

Satomi Onishi is also a physical chemist with specific expertise in scanning probe microscopy and surface physics.