Kate Ledger is a pianist, collaborator and educator specialising in embodiment, spirituality and authenticity via experimental artistic practice. More recently, she collaborates with composers to examine how notation directly affects her movement. Here, with the help of Feldenkrais methodology and spiritual practice, she is playing either with or against her habitual performing movements. This is revealing many ways in which to write for the body, enhanced by the uniqueness of each composer.

She studied at the University of Huddersfield with Philip Thomas between 2003-2009 and has since studied with Ian Pace. She has played across Europe and the UK as a soloist or with a number of ensembles, including Heather Roche, Peyee Chen, Distractfold and Dark Inventions. In 2014, she premiered Steven Takasugi’s The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Laughing (2009) with Distractfold and won the Kranichstein Music Prize for Interpretation at the International Summer Course for New Music Darmstadt.

In more recent years, Kate has settled in York where she teaches and carried out her PhD. She focussed on locally-based projects whilst bringing up her two children, which involved collaborating with composers at the University of York and York St. John’s. Projects have included working with composer Morag Galloway on What Does This Moment Require; a piece about the transition to motherhood. She also facilitated the York hub of the Mothers Who Make creative network.

Other notable collaborations include her work with Ray Evanoff and Ben Isaacs, with whom she began to develop her understanding of touch and sound using composed, constraining notational systems. She continues to develop this today through a wider awareness of the performing body, its links with meditation and yoga, and its effective contribution to sound production.