A master of Arabic music plays, with his ensemble

More than ever, the music of the Arab world is with us, right here in the good ol' U.S.A. The relatively unfamiliar quarter-tones and microtonal quavers of pan-Arabic music may still suggest something exotic to Western ears. But, as the sublime Sunday afternoon performance of New York-based Palestinian maestro Simon Shaheen and ensemble at the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater demonstrated, it thrives in this country. Whether imported via immigration or foreign entanglements, the culture it springs from is increasingly embedded in our own.

The 53-year-old Shaheen is a virtuoso on both the violin and the oud - the pear-shaped, lutelike forerunner of the guitar - and a celebrated genre-exploring composer as well as a torch-carrying interpreter of Arabic standards. (Also an educator, he lectures and leads workshops, as arranged recently by Philadelphia's Arabic culture-promoting organization Al-Bustan.)

On Sunday, Shaheen and five other musicians presented nine selections in two 45-minute sets that leaned toward the traditional, if also resonantly timely. The afternoon's second number was "Iraq," a year-old Shaheen composition. "The title refers to the country," he noted. "The modal or

maqam

- the Arabic scale that I selected to compose the piece on - is also called

Iraq

, and the beginning . . . is a theme that reminds me of rural folkloric tunes from Iraq."

Shaheen's oud-picking on it was extraordinary. Passionate staccato runs and emotional swerves recalled a flamenco guitar master like Paco de Lucía, demonstrating the Spanish genre's inherent Arabic elements. Also notable was 70-year-old Michel Merhej, tapping out a startling array of rhythms with his fingers on the

riq

- basically, a tambourine held upright.

Shaheen's superb violin skills were best showcased in a four-part suite with a mildly punning title: "You're all familiar with the term

arabesque

- but 'Arboresque'? It was composed in Ann Arbor, that's the hint." (For the record, other than being utterly spellbinding, the composition lacked any commonality with that Michigan city's greatest musical export, Iggy and the Stooges.)

Arms out, elbows bent and palms up in romantic supplication, talented vocalist Salma Marjieh sang two particularly choice numbers: Egyptian composer Riyad al-Sunbati's "Ifrah Ya Albi" - famously first sung in 1936 by the all-time queen diva of pan-Arabic music, Umm Kulthum - and "Layliyyi," a popular Philemon Wahbi composition with lyrics by the Rahbani Brothers, presented by famed Lebanese chanteuse Fairuz in 1970.