Sarah Aroeste -- Soprano to sing tonight. Click photo for larger image. Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival "An Evening With Chatham Baroque and Brio," Anna Levenstein, soprano. 8 p.m. today at Rodef Shalom Congregation, Shadyside. $18, $15 seniors, $12 students. "Ladino Love Songs," featuring Katherine Soroka, soprano, and members of the Pittsburgh Symphony. 8 p.m. June 1 at Rodef Shalom. $18, $15 seniors, $12 students. Sarah Aroeste Band. 7 p.m. June 2, Club Cafe, South Side (must be 21 or over). $15, $12 seniors, $8 students. "Sephardic Suites," Lucas Richman, conductor; Shira Adler, soprano; the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival Orchestra. 8 p.m., June 7 at Jewish Community Center, Squirrel Hill. $18, $15 seniors, $12 students. Information: www. proarts-tickets.org or 412-394-3353.

It was called The Golden Age, a fusion of Arab and Jewish intellects in astronomy, poetry, science and mathematics beginning in Spain around 900. Although there had been some inherent tensions, it wasn't until 1492, under Ferdinand and Isabella, that both the Arabs and the Jews -- unless they were converted to Catholicism -- were expunged from Spain during the Inquisition.

Known as the Sephardic culture, it was dispersed all over Europe and the Mediterranean, passed down from mother to child, altered by its new environment, but still a tribute to the enduring spirit of its people.

The second Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival, set for four performances over two weeks, will concentrate on "A Sephardic Celebration," embracing long-held traditions with a contemporary accent. It will include an evening with Chatham Baroque and Brio, with soprano Anna Levenstein; followed by evenings with Ladino love songs, featuring soprano Kathleen Soroka and members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; New York City's Sarah Aroeste Band, a blend of traditional Ladino music mixed with rock and jazz; and "Sephardic Suites" with conductor Lucas Richman and The Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival Orchestra.

Artistic director Aaron Zelkowicz is proud of the scope of the festival. Where many Jewish music festivals book random acts, the Pittsburgh version is "unique in that it specializes in chamber and orchestra music, folk bands and klezmer bands and world music, all tied into a theme."

Zelkowicz chose the Sephardic tradition because it "stemmed from the passion of the music itself." He came across composers such as Roberto Sierra, a Puerto Rican composer who blends microtones and tropical colors into a Sephardic songbook, and Betty Olivero, one of Israel's most famous composers.

Audiences will be able to hear a wealth of styles, from medieval tonalities and Spanish flamboyance to the genesis of klezmer and the exoticism of Arabic. Chatham Baroque and Brio will convey the historical, Soroka the intimacy, Richman full-blown orchestral arrangements of the familiar and Aroeste a contemporary resonance.

On a personal level, Yoel Ben-Simhon is a prime example of the extraordinary richness of the Sephardic culture. A member of Aroeste, he also heads his own band, Sultana Ensemble, and will appear at the festival as a composer and solo performer on the oud, a predecessor of the more familiar lute, but without the frets.

Born in the town of Kiryat-Gat, an hour south of Tel Aviv, of Moroccan Sephardic heritage, Ben-Simhon grew up listening to his grandmother, Sultana, sing Sephardic songs to him in Ladino, the language that evolved as a blend of Sephardic and various local cultures.

At age 26, he moved to the United States to study classical music at Santa Monica College in Los Angeles when not working as a graphic designer. A new job offer led to New York City, where he attended Hunter College's Mannes School of Music and received a master's degree in composition, piano and voice.

Along the way Ben-Simhon dabbled in jazz and rock music, both laced with elements of his Israeli heritage. Then Sultana died. He composed a song in tribute to her, deeply Sephardic, and began a band in her name.

"It's the circle of life," Ben-Simhon says. "One thing ends and another starts. I felt like I was called to preserve and document the Jewish-Moroccan culture. And I felt that I had to do something substantial."

Then he met Simon Shaheen, oud virtuoso and a Palestinian. "I was stunned by the passion of this person," Ben-Simhon says. "Arabic music was not respected as serious high music. It was the first time that I realized how complicated, how rich it was."

He researched the connection between Jewish and Arab cultures for his master's thesis, noting details like the Moroccan cantors who used music from Arab sources in the synagogue.

Ben-Simhon had finally found his identity. His band, Sultana Ensemble, now reflects that blend, with Arab, Jewish and American members, and music that is reborn out of that solidarity to embrace the future.