Atrocities of the human race pile up so fast in any survey of history (or snapshot of today's world) that many get overlooked. The one that destroyed one of the world's most advanced societies in 1492 should not. Under pressure from the Spanish Inquisition, the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella expelled all the Jews living in Spain that year, shattering a culture of science and arts and scattering families across the globe, if they survived at all.

This year's Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival brought to light the once-vibrant Sephardic Jews, showing their musical tradition and their interaction with the Islamic and Christian peoples living together on the Iberian Peninsula. A concert Tuesday night at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill collected instrumentalists of the Pittsburgh Symphony and some talented freelancers not only to look backward at this community, but to examine its living heritage of folk and art music.

As you might expect, much of the music that remains is mournful, but there are also upbeat songs, remembering the good times and living the present. The concert contained four suites of orchestrated Sephardic songs arranged by Lucas Richman (who also conducted the concert), Shimon Cohen, Joshua Jacobson and David Eaton. Richman's instrumental suite held the best arrangements, but the singing of Shira Adler made those of Cohen and Eaton shine.

Adler is the cantorial soloist at Tree of Life Congregation, but the soprano showed a marvelous impishness in her energetic performance here. She clearly has a full command of her charged, limber and attractive voice. For those of us for whom Sephardic music is a new experience, she proved an apt guide. She pulled the audience into this soundscape, in one instance asking the audience to sing along.

The concert also showcased the continuing tradition of the Sephardim, in contemporary art music. Richman led the premiere of Nizan Leibovich's "Saperi" for cello and orchestra. The concerto is complex and difficult -- in fact the performance lacked the cohesion it should have been with this quality of players. But its substance and creativity still emerged.

The work called for soloist Aron Zelkowicz, also the founder of the festival, to mimic electric guitar, the human voice and various folk instruments, which he did with commitment. The larger work was likewise inclusive, showing the open-mindedness and expansiveness of this culture. A poignant cello solo midway through recalled the exile in elegiac fashion while the work held many passionate moments focused on the surviving vitality.

Composer Yuval Ron examined the Jewish expulsion from a world-music perspective with his concertante piece "Canciones Sephardi." A group of six soloists, vocalist Michal Cohen, oud player Yoel Ben-Simhon, guitarist Pedro daSilva, percussionist Timothy Adams, cellist Zelkowicz and violinist Jeremy Black retraced the "trauma" of the exile (with help from the deft use of chimes) and the ultimate survival. The exclamations of this group were often delightful, especially Cohen's improvisations and daSilva's flamenco-infusion. However the string and wind writing behind them was underdeveloped and oversimplified, making it seem a pops arrangement more than an integrated piece.