With only her voice as an instrument, the Japanese singer conjures a world of sound and color, with operatic élan.

The best albums from the first half of the year include sprawling offerings from Big Thief and Bad Bunny, works of fiery introspection from Kendrick Lamar and S.G. Goodman and an abundance in between.

The Grammy Award-winning opera singer performs a classical, jazz and gospel influenced set.

The songs we love from the first half of the year span a wide emotional and musical range, from wild percussive romps to raw pleas for empathy to Beyoncé's command to leave it all on the dance floor.

Vijay Gupta was a 19-year-old violin prodigy when he joined the LA Philharmonic. Now he runs Street Symphony, an organization bringing music to clinics, jails and homeless shelters on Skid Row.

Composer Liliya Ugay's experience of Puerto Rico exists only in her imagination. She had originally planned to travel there prior to the pandemic, but has only gotten as close as Florida. Her composition focuses on the idea of the "Island of Enchantment."

A new project conceived by Lebanese American tenor Karim Sulayman recasts baroque music that by turns demonizes and exoticizes Arabs and Muslims.

Georgetown University owes its survival to slavery. A new album by Carlos Simon, an assistant professor at the school, unflinchingly confronts that legacy.

This Juneteenth, pianist Lara Downes remembers the freedom that has been hard fought and hard won.

At a protest centered around the death of George Floyd in 2020, composer J.J. Peña Aguayo saw bomba musicians leading the way.