Nor is diagnosing an inequity the same as leveling it: Despite much endeavoring to the contrary, the "contemporary classical" circle in Ear Taxi's Venn diagram still dwarfed all others. So, take Ear Taxi 2021 for what it was: a call to a genre in self-imposed exile to play Chicago, a directive distinct from playing in. It was up to the performers themselves how they wanted to define "Chicago." Some took a retrospective view, as did pianist Marianne Parker, mezzo-soprano Megan Ihnen and violist Michael Hall in an architecture-themed program on Oct. 3 at the Epiphany Center for the Arts. (Though balance issues set its world premiere performance askance, composer-poet Regina Harris Baiocchi's elegant "Landscapes," derived from a Frederick Law Olmsted essay, was a special triumph.) Others took that to mean "Chicago here and now" — as is the wont of D-Composed String Quartet, who wrapped their performance at the same venue with a smoldering arrangement of Noname's "Montego Bae." And how about "Chicagos to come"? D-Composed also nodded to those in its glossy performance of "Break Away" (2013) by Jessie Montgomery, whose tenure as Chicago Symphony Orchestra composer-in-residence begins in earnest this fall. While Montgomery's brash, colorative works from a decade ago have been string-ensemble catnip for years, other Ear Taxi concerts showcased her more recent preoccupations. Montgomery's new trio for violin, clarinet and percussion (given an emotionally raw world premiere by F-Plus at DePaul University) is caustic stuff — a simple ascending theme repeats in new contexts and with increasing desperation, as though to convince itself of whatever it's saying. Her "Lunar Songs" (2019) is similarly enigmatic but of a different feather entirely, with all the lightheaded absurdism and aching beauty of a dream over too soon. Soprano Whitney Morrison and CSO string players performed the three-song miniature to a tiny, fortunate audience at the Kehrein Center for the Arts in South Austin on Oct. 4; because of contract-related red tape, "Lunar Songs" got blotted from Ear Taxi's livestream. All the more reason to sprint, not walk to its upcoming Nov. 1 CSO showing: "Lunar Songs" stands alongside Ayanna Woods's "SHIFT" (an a cappella and electronics tour de force performed by the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble) and Annika Socolofsky's "I Tell You Me" (in its world-premiere performance by ~Nois saxophone quartet and Socolofsky herself) as among the most captivating compositions I heard the whole festival.