Recently described as “perverse and nihilistic” by someone on social media, 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.

Soprano Anika Kildegaard is regularly sought out as a passionate interpreter and collaborator. She is a champion of new music, having premiered and commissioned multiple new works from composers across the Midwest including Libby Larsen, Linda Kachelmeier, and Mitch Grussing. She has sung with such notable groups as The VocalEssence Ensemble Singers, the Minnesota Chorale, the SPCO Chorale, MPLS (imPulse), Magpies & Ravens, and the Grammy award winning ensemble The Crossing.

Will Yager is a bassist/improviser committed to collaborating with living composers in the creation of new solo and chamber repertoire for the double bass. In addition to LIGAMENT, he is a member of the improvising trio Wombat.

Sydeboob duo:

We are a contemporary chamber music duo for the 21st Century located in Brooklyn, NY. Made up of soprano vocalist Anna Elder and flutist Sarah Steranka, we perform and commission contemporary chamber music at the highest level. We often push the boundaries of modern techniques while honoring traditional performance practices that would be common in any era of classical music and most importantly make our mother’s happy. We’ve been playing together since 2015, but formed SydeBoob officially in 2020. Our name is a term for soft-bodied women that has been taken back by modern feminists about ownership of what society deems to be “unsightly body fat.” In taking the term back, we are declaring that we own our bodies, our decisions, our minds, and our musical practice. We are dedicated to pushing the boundaries of contemporary performance, amplifying the voices of female artists, and using alternative performance mediums to invite listeners into a more unique and challenging listening space.

Alize Rozsnyai & Roger A. Martinez:

Alize Francheska Rozsnyai is a coloratura soprano “displaying profound imagination and control” (Philadelphia Inquirer), building a diverse and exciting performance career as a classical soprano with a "superb voice" (Harrogate News), and acclaimed interpreter of new music, supplying "deliciously diva performances" (I CARE IF YOU LISTEN).

A passionate interpreter of new music and atonal works, M. Rozsnyai covered the Title Role in the World Premiere of Louis Karchin’s Jane
Eyre with the Center for Contemporary Opera, created the role of Andy #1, in Andy: A Popera, a World Premiere with Opera Philadelphia, reprising the work with the Seattle Symphony [Untitled 3] Series. She helped to create several roles including Lila in Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain, and Silvana in Missy Mazzoli’s A Flourish of Green workshop with Opera Philadelphia and the Mother in Errollyn Wallen’s Sabina Spielrein with the Center for Contemporary Opera. Other favorite highlights include Delia in Il Viaggio a Reims with the Rossini Opera Festival, under the baton of the late famed maestro, Alberto Zedda.

RogerA. Martinez is a composer who specializes in opera, soundtrack music, and arrangements for recording artists. Roger's operatic work frequently blends traditional chamber instrumentation with electronic components such as programmed beats, synthesizers, and sound design. His most recent operatic work, Souls Unscreened, is an electronic opera written in collaboration with librettist Alize Francheska Rozsnyai. Souls Unscreened debuted its first act in 2024 at New York City's Brooklyn Art Haus. Other operatic works include 2021's Alcina Revamped, for which Roger contributed electronic rearrangements of Handel's classic opera, and Potentialite, an original work that premiered in 2019. Both Alcina Revamped and Potentialite were performed as part of Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Roger has collaborated with opera companies such as NYC's Experiments in Opera as well as Philadelphia's Alter Ego Chamber Opera and ENA Ensemble.

venue is wheelchair accessible