Kaleigh Wilder is a multi-instrumentalist and improviser based in Detroit, Michigan. Speaking primarily through the baritone saxophone, Kaleigh combines elements of classical, Black American Music, avant-garde, and Afro Diasporic influence into a unifying sound. Using timbral extremes that shift between raw and polished, abrasive and sensitive, discomfort and catharsis, Kaleigh translates bodily and ancestral memory into sound to communicate viscerally. She hopes to amplify in the listener their own understanding of music and Self.

Wilder completed her masters of music in improvisation from the University of Michigan. She also holds a certificate in Performance Studies where she conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Ghana. Trying to make connections between the predominance of men in West African music traditions and Black American Music, Wilder located a female master drummer, Nana Charlotte Amonoo, to study with and conduct interviews. During Wilder’s month of research she studied with two drum and dance troupes where she learned djembe, Ewe drums, traditional dances, and how to play gyil–a gourd resonated xylophone instrument native to Ghana’s Upper West Region. Gyil is now a primary element in her musical practice. 

Wilder currently co-leads an ensemble with percussionist Ben Hall and former bassist for Sun Ra, Jaribu Shahid. Founded by longtime collaborators Kaleigh Wilder and Ben Hall, they describe the process of creating as "Afro-diasporic excavation" which is to say finding new myth structures in and of Afro-American ritual music. Wilder also led a saxophone/drum duo with Nova Zaii, who appears on Wilder’s first album, and is a member of the Ellen Rowe Octet.

Kaleigh is a 2022 Kresge Artist Fellow, awarded by Kresge Arts in Detroit. She self-released her debut album, Placemaking, in 2021. As a sideperson, she’s performed with Allison Miller, Ingrid Jensen, Jaribu Shahid, Ken Vandermark, Marion Hayden, and Regina Carter. She’s performed as a sideperson at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in New York City and the Amazonas Green Jazz Festival in Manaus, Brazil. As a bandleader, she’s performed at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Hall, Kerrytown Concert House’s “Edgefest”, and with University Musical Society’s Ypsilanti Freighthouse residency.