The NYAO is a New York-based 501.C.3 nonprofit organization. Donations support hundreds of musicians, artists, composers, and students who are performing, preserving and playing Arabic music in the community, in concert halls and in classrooms throughout the greater New York metropolitan area. The NYAO, founded in 2007, transformed Arabic music education in New York City and impacted thousands of students and concert-goers around the world. In its 15-year existence, the NYAO has swept the world with powerful performances and workshops, from Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Damrosch Park and Detroit Symphony Hall, to Festival Musicas Do Mundo in Portugal and Taipei Silk Road Music Conference in Taiwan. Through concerts and classes, the NYAO watched countless Americans and non-natives from the around the world transform their lives toward the pursuit of Arabic music; thousands of Arab-American adults inspired to revive the music of their upbringing, and youth, both Arab-American and non-native, become forever changed by the experience of Arabic music.