Make room Zemlinsky and Zelter, not to mention Zaimont, Zwilich and Zorn, there's a new "Z" composer who deserves to be heard.

It's hard enough for a living composer to enter the canon, but for an obscure one long dead, the task is nearly impossible. In the case of composer Leo Zeitlin, however, the doors should swing open, based on the material the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival unveiled Monday night at Rodef Shalom Congregation in Oakland.

Zeitlin (1884-1930) emerged from the shrouds of the past in a program that highlighted the Russian Jew's artful orchestration, especially of Yiddish folk songs, and mastery of late Romantic style. A student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, he studied under Rimsky-Korsakov, whose advocacy of using folk tunes spurred Zeitlin and others to form the Society for Jewish Folk Music. That was in 1908, and the composer seems to have adjusted to Revolutionary Russia by appealing to Soviet nationalism in his music.

Although Zeitlin wasn't sent to Siberia, he certainly had been forgotten until work by musicologist Paula Eisenstein Baker began to discover his legacy.

The focus on Monday was on chamber music and art song, and Zeitlin had a flair for both. Baritone Guenko Guechev and mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway gave evidence galore to the skill that Zeitlin had for underscoring key text with exquisite harmony and orchestration. His music was a compelling combination of Romantic melody and modern harmony, but it was all tonal. A set of dramatic recitations by a solo singer and piano were creative and potent outshoots of the art song tradition, but the best music came in song forms with Yiddish and Jewish texts. Zeitlin maintained the theatrical element of these, and Mr. Guenchev and Ms. Calloway wonderfully obliged with emotional characterizations and sumptuous voices.

The pianist in this part of the concert was Elisabeth Pridonoff, who was, to the surprise of the entire Levy Hall, told by a shouting patron to play quieter because she was drowning out the singers. You don't see that every day!

Aron Zelkowicz, cellist and director of the festival, calmed the situation down, but did shut the piano lid to the smaller opening (it actually was a bit loud). It was remarkable that, after handling that strange situation, Mr. Zelkowicz was able to give such a touching rendition of "Eli Zion" by Zeitlin, an emotion-filled fantasy on a folk melody for cello and piano. With broad bow strokes, he plumbed the depths of this richly Romantic work. The AGAM ensemble (members of the Pittsburgh Symphony: violinists Dennis O'Boyle and Laura Motchalov, violas Marylene Gingras-Roy, Isaias Zelkowicz and Aron Zelkowicz) played superbly throughout the night, but especially when accompanying singers.

Lest the art music get too serious, comic relief came in the form of singer/actress Daniella Rabbani. Whether in dramatic recitation backed by the AGAM or singing Yiddish folk songs accompanied by barnstorming pianist Dmitri Slepovitch, Ms. Rabbani was the living embodiment of this fun, often sensuous music.

Pittsburgh composer David Stock was in attendance to hear the premiere of his "Two Yiddish Songs," sung by Ms. Calloway and backed by an AGAM string quartet. Mr. Stock seamlessly tied together a text about a yingele and maydele -- little boy and little girl -- and the endless love of a parent for them. The latter was pulled from Mr. Stock's monodrama "A Little Miracle," a touching work about a young mother who hides from the Nazis in Poland. Ms. Calloway sang both with remarkable sensitivity, which she matched singing "Eili, Eili," in an arrangement by Zeitlin of a Joachim Stutschewsky work for cello and piano performed by Mr. Zelkowicz and local pianist extraordinaire Luz Manriquez.

It was a spirited start to the 2010 Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival, which continues with "100 Years of Jewish Theater" at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the JCC of Squirrel Hill, and with "Yiddish Meets Klezmer" at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Temple Emanuel of South Hills and 7:30 Monday at the JCC.

Critics Andrew Druckenbrod and Scott Mervis talk about music on "The Beat," available exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.