BROADLY defined, “Jewish music” typically evokes the wild fury of klezmer or — and this is particularly unfortunate — tuneless elementary school renditions of “The Dreidel Song,” complete with fudged lyrics and ill-timed handclaps. The weeklong Sephardic Music Festival, now in its seventh year, should put to rest those notions with its eclectic lineup of traditional and contemporary artists, including many dedicated to fusing disparate sounds or bridging new and old.

As an umbrella term, Sephardic music refers loosely to the songs composed and performed by descendants or followers of Sephardi Jews, who occupied the Iberian Peninsula until their exile in the late 15th century; many resettled in Ottoman strongholds (Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and the Balkan lands that eventually formed Yugoslavia), parts of the Middle East and North Africa. Erez Safar, the founder and producer of the festival, said that while he often described Sephardic music as “Jewish Middle-Eastern music,” most definitions were too narrow or too broad. Mostly, Mr. Safar, whose family has roots in Yemen dating back over 2,000 years, is eager to raise awareness of Judaism’s cultural diversity, which he emphasized extends beyond its “Eastern European, Ashkenazi” face.