Concerning religion, the focus these days is squarely and sometimes militantly on content. But worship itself also takes many forms, and here the differences can be appreciated, and even celebrated, across boundary lines. That's especially true when it comes to ceremonial music.

		Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival "A Tribute to Shlomo Carlebach." Neshama Carlebach and band. 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Congregation Beth Shalom, Squirrel Hill. "Songs for the Seasons." Shira Adler and Katherine Soroka, sopranos, with members of the Pittsburgh Symphony. 8 p.m. Tuesday Rodef Shalom Congregation's Levy Hall, Shadyside. Tickets: $18, $15 seniors, $12 students; www.pjmf.net, www.proartstickets.org or 412-394-3353. More on the shofar

It is in this context that the Jewish Music Festival presented "From Shabbat to the High Holidays" Wednesday night at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill.

Nostalgia permeated the air as a festival orchestra conducted by Nizan Leibovich performed liturgical and other music from services spanning the entire Jewish year. Fond remembrance was certainly intended, but it was not the only goal, for director Aron Zelkowicz also hoped the concerts would "enlighten non-Jews about our diverse holidays."

That it did, and the fact that the rich musical fabric of the Jewish calendar could be so succinctly and substantially encapsulated in one night is a marvel.

The concert opened with a nod to the earliest tradition, the playing of the shofar, or ram's horn. Actually, performer Ronald Schneider played the visually more spectacular impala horn, which only lent to the grandeur of Judith Shatin's "Teruah," a premiere commissioned by the festival and the Jewish Music Commission of Los Angeles. Similar to her fascinating chamber work "Elijah's Chariot," which can be heard at the festival concert Tuesday, the Charlottesville, Va.-based Shatin wonderfully used the other instruments in "Teruah" to extend the essence of the shofar.

In this case, she did so with a small collection of brass and timpani. After an opening round of stout tekiah blasts by Schneider, the brass played a dark, dissonant and gritty chord, infused with flutter tonguing, creating a musical metaphor for how the shofar has inspired worshippers during the High Holidays for centuries. A gorgeous Rosh Hashanah melody that emerged in the horns only drove that further, serving as the emotional response to the sound.

The piece ended with an impressively long tekiah gedolah by Schneider, but in between it was much more than a fanfare. Shatin, who will have a work performed on the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble's summer season, is a thoughtful and inventive composer who doesn't write in an academic, rebarbative style. Her music pulls one in with artistic embrace.

The sprint through the season brought a debonair rendering of Max Bruch's "Kol Nidre" by cellist Zelkovicz and a dulcet interpretation of two movements from Ernest Bloch's "Baal Shem" by violinist Andres Cardenes. In both, Leibovich balanced the orchestra well while still getting a solid timbre out of it.

If the concert got temporarily lighthearted during Lucas Richman's "Hanukkah Festival Overture," it again grew profound with Leibovich's setting of Psalm 118 and a suite of Passover songs by Srul Irving Glick. The latter brought out the best of the Zohar Chamber Singers, a group founded by Leibovich. The chorus offered stylistically sound interpretations of the soulful melodies.

As in last year's festival, cantor Shira Adler was again the spice to finish the concert on a high note. She imbued her singing of Maurice Ravel's "Kaddish" and Ben Steinberg's "Shalom Rav" and "Lakol Z'man" with zest.