Contemporary

In the music on composer David Bird's new album, the hardness and coldness of actual metal seem almost literally audible.

"Each of these four figures, Marsha P. Johnson, Harvey Milk, Jeanne Manford, and Xulhaz Mannan, carried a kind of radical tenderness into a world that often met them with hostility."

A selection from the 76 pieces of Kwon's "America/Beautiful" project showed the composers' vast range of styles and approaches.

Four composers combine in an appealing work promoting "a shared community between us and the other living creatures that make us possible."

Let your mind create its own pictures...

"While the world is waiting for the UFC Freedom 250 on June 14 at the White House, I challenge President Putin to a cage match," says Pussy Riot.

A work like this asks us to exercise our patience, something in short supply these days – to listen closely to a spread of sound over time without imposing expectations on it.

Works that incorporate organic sounds from outside the piano make some of the deepest impressions.

The man-machine duality of a soloist performing alongside a recording has what in the pre-robotic, pre-AI age we might have called a futuristic quality. Today it touches on the "uncanny valley" effect.

The Taiwan Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble and Taiwu Ballads Troupe vocal ensemble unveiled a panoply of fascinating, mostly Taiwan-rooted music that incorporated Western classical, contemporary avant-garde, and Indigenous music.