The New York Arabic Orchestra is the home of contemporary and classical Arabic music in America. The orchestra, based in the New York metropolitan area, is an educational institution founded in 2007 by Bassam Saba, a world renowned multi-instrumentalist virtuoso, conductor and teacher of Arabic music in collaboration with April Centrone, the orchestra's lead percussionist. The orchestra brings together a culturally diverse group of musicians around a common passion: Arabic Music.

The New York Arabic Orchestra's rich repertoire comprises three major branches. The orchestra performs innovative interpretations of pieces from the classical Arabic repertoire working with forms such as Sama’i, Bashraf and Muwashah. It also features works by distinguished modern composers such as Mohammad Abdel Wahhab, The Rahbani Brothers, Farid al Atrach and Marcel Khalifeh. The orchestra's signature however, lies in the performance of original music written for it by its founder and conductor Bassam Saba whose intensely original compositions and intricate arrangements partake in fashioning new horizons for Arabic music.

Music-making in the New York Arabic Orchestra is a dynamic and collaborative process. While taking root in the forms, modes, ornamentations, and improvisation techniques characteristic of Arabic Music, the orchestra branches off towards multiple musical horizons. The diverse musical traditions brought in by the orchestra's members are embraced by Saba whose arrangements and original music bear witness to the New York Arabic Orchestra's colorful musical imaginaries. Escaping ready-made classifications such as folkloric revivalism on one end of the spectrum, and 'fusion' experimentalism on the other, the New York Arabic Orchestra's distinctive voice, a testimony to the fertility and openness of Arabic musical traditions, is carving out a new space in the musical landscape in America.