Sydeboob Duo
LIGAMENT
Sydeboob Duo is soprano vocalist Anna Elder and flutist Sarah Steranka's contemporary chamber music duo. Based in Brooklyn, the pair performs and commissions music that pushes the boundaries of modern techniques while honoring traditional practices that would be common in any era of classical music. Elder and Steranka have played together since 2015, but officially formed SydeBoob in 2020. Their name reclaims an ostensibly derogatory term for soft-bodied women's “unsightly body fat.” In taking that term back, they declare that they not only own and love their own bodies, but also their decisions, their minds, their musical practice and the critical intersection of it all. SydeBoob is dedicated to amplifying the voices of female artists and using alternative performance mediums to invite listeners into a more unique and challenging listening experience.
Sydeboob have been resident artists at Pennsylvania State University, Binghamton University, and Carnegie Mellon University. They have been presented by ChamberQUEER, The Johnstone Fund for New Music, Mosaic Composers Collective, and Music on The Edge. The duo has recently received grants from The Brooklyn Arts Council and Chamber Music America. In 2024, they appeared on the track "Evil Trees" on Hannah Selin’s album Dream Journal & the Apocalypse. The duo will be releasing their debut album, Au Naturel - recorded, mixed, and mastered by audio engineer Kevin Ramsay at Harvest Works Studios in 2025.
Program info:
Rebecca Saunders, O yes, and i
Eric Moe, The Frontierswomen
Ramin Akhavijou, she is there
Anthony Braxton, Composition no. 304
Invocation VI, Beat Furrer
LIGAMENT
Bio:
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.
Program:
Machina - Zac Fick-Cambria
Nocturne - Christine Burke
A Promised Story - Matt Mason
The size of an orange - Carlos Cotallo Solares
Changing Light - Kaija Saariaho