LIGAMENT

Recently described as “perverse and nihilistic” by someone on Twitter, Anika Kildegaard (voice) and Will Yager (double bass) are LIGAMENT, an ensemble dedicated to commissioning new music and creating work for their unique instrumentation. LIGAMENT’s performances are a fusion of standard and non-standard elements; sometimes there are high heels and sometimes there are electric toothbrushes (and sometimes both). The duo is equally at home with extended techniques as with extra-musical elements.

LIGAMENT means business: they’ve been ensemble fellows at New Music on the Point and Cortona Sessions for New Music; have performed in concert series iHearIC, Feed Me Weird Things, University of Iowa Center for New Music, and Bowerbird; have been tapped as the collaborating ensemble for dance performances not I but that which works within me (Alyssa Gersony) and Struggle for Pleasure (Armando Duarte). Other performance highlights include the Kansas City Contemporary Music Festival and Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project’s Re:Sound 2021. Recent seasons have included serving as ensemble-in-residence for Washington D.C.’s District New Music Coalition, a tour with saxophone duo Ogni Suono, residencies at the University of Idaho and University of Iowa, and collaborations with the composition department at the Peabody Conservatory. Their 2024-25 season includes returns to the University of Iowa and Peabody Conservatory, a collaboration with clarinetist Jean-François Charles, and a duo tour with Sydeboob Duo. They have premiered many new works, and have an upcoming album of pieces written expressly for the duo.

LIGAMENT is currently based in Iowa/Philadelphia