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For Assaf Weisman, pianist and United States director of the Israeli Chamber Project, performing chamber music with other Israeli musicians has both a cultural and personal meaning that is “greater than the sum of its parts.”

Being Israeli, first of all, shapes the way the musicians communicate with one another.

“We tend to be extraordinarily direct and have a common understanding of things that are insinuated but don’t have to be spelled out — because we carry a common cultural heritage,” he said. “Everyone feels a connection that is more than just a well-rehearsed group.”

But the raison d’ętre of the group also embraces a distinctive Israeli musical experience. In Israel, explained Tibi Cziger, clarinetist and artistic director of the group, talented young musicians did not play in the bands and orchestras typical of high schools in the United States, which were just too expensive, but rather in chamber groups. “We did it while we were studying our instruments as kids,” Cziger said. “We feel it is in our blood.”

It was a natural, then, for eight young Israeli-born musicians, who now range in age from 24 to 32, to set up their own chamber group to show off chamber music at the highest level, both in the United States and Israel.

“There is something special about Israelis playing chamber music,” Cziger said. “There are a lot of voices, and each one has to claim his idea.” His role as artistic director is to achieve balance in the group’s concerts, each of which features a different ensemble of instruments. “I have to give the same stage time to everyone, the same exposure to each of the instruments,” he said.

The Israeli Chamber Project, founded about two years ago, includes eight Israelis, five of whom live in New York and three in Europe. Every year, the group’s musicians do two or three tours in Israel as well as performances in the United States to display the rich culture in Israel for American audiences.

In Israel the group’s mission of cultural education takes a different form. The musicians visit small places in Israel that have no access to classical music — small towns, kibbutzim, Arab cities — and give the same concert they are giving in Tel-Aviv or Jerusalem; the tickets are either free or very inexpensive. Because the group is modular, it can put together an ensemble that fits the venue; for example, a small town may not have a piano available. In these small towns the musicians also give classes in the local conservatories during their visits.

Another aspect of the group’s “Israeliness” is its repertoire, which includes the two pieces it commissions each year from young, emerging Israeli composers. A concert on Sunday, Nov. 1 at 3 p.m., as part of the Juilliard @ SOPAC (South Orange Performing Arts Center) series, will include one of these pieces, “Trio for a Spry Clarinet, Weeping Cello and Ruminating Harp,” by Gilad Cohen.

Cohen, who is working on a doctorate at Princeton University, wrote this piece, which will be second in the concert, with particular musicians in mind: clarinetist Tibi Cziger, cellist Michal Korman, and harpist Sivan Magen. “The four of us are really good friends,” explained Cziger. “It is a different thing when a composer writes a piece for people he knows so well both musically and personally.”

The music alternates between a serious classical mode and sections influenced by klezmer and rock. The composer also experiments with having musicians stomp on the floor with their feet and pounding on their instruments. “But it is a tonal, not an atonal piece,” explained Cziger. “People should not be afraid. It has a lot of humor in it and is very optimistic.”

The piece also has unusual instrumentation. “The clarinet is melodic, the cello provides the bass and has melodic ability, and the harp gives this special color,” Cziger said. “It’s too bad no other composers wrote for this ensemble.”

The range of musical selections Nov. 1 will reflect the nature of the group. “We try to have the program be as colorful and versatile as we can for each concert,” Cziger said. That means showing the whole range of chamber music, varying the size of the ensembles, the instrumentation selected, and the historical period of the music.

Saint Saëns’ “Fantaisie For Violin and Harp, Op. 124” will be played by violinist Itamar Zorman and harpist Sivan Magen. This combination of harp and violin is unusual, Cziger said, very different from the more common duo of violin and piano.

“The sound and general atmosphere that the harp gives is quite unusual and very special,” Cziger said. Describing the romantic mood changes and the lovely melodies, Cziger added, “It is one of those pieces that you can just say it is beautiful.”

The third piece, Bartok’s “Contrasts for Piano, Violin and Clarinet,” with pianist Assaff Weisman, violinist Itamar Zorman, and clarinetist Tibi Cziger, was written in the late 1930s. Dedicated to Benny Goodman and Hungarian violinist Josef Szigeti, it contrasts Szigeti’s Hungarian folk music with Goodman’s klezmer and jazz.

Because the original music was written for two great artists, one a clarinetist and the other a violinist, Bartok wrote special cadenzas in the first and third movements to showcase each instrument’s capabilities and the musicians’ virtuosity. But, added Cziger, “he was too humble to write a cadenza for himself.”

After the intermission the group will play J. S. Bach and Mozart’s “Two Adagio and Fugues.” The music was originally arranged for a string trio of violin, viola, and cello, but Cziger rearranged the viola part for the clarinet.

Only recently were the adagios in these adagio-fugue combinations proven to be from Mozart’s hand. Although myth had it that no one knew of Bach until after he died and was rediscovered by Mendelssohn in the 19th century, these pieces, Cziger said, prove that Mozart himself was influenced by Bach. In Vienna, Mozart wanted to join a society that met on Sundays to play pieces by Baroque composers. To gain entry into the group after his arrival in Vienna, Mozart wrote the adagios and arranged the fugues for a string ensemble.

The program ends with Mendelssohn’s well-known and loved “Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 49” in celebration of his 200th birthday. Played with violin, cello, and piano, this well-known piece, Cziger said, is the only standard piece of program. Cziger started playing piano at age 9 and took up clarinet at age 13. His mother had been a pianist before she became a doctor and his siblings all played instruments.

“You could say music was in our house,” he said.

Cziger grew up in Ramat Gan, and while in the army served as a musician, played chamber music for soldiers. Many of the group’s members did likewise.

“It was not the army band,” he explained. “With this status, we could go abroad and go to master classes or give concerts abroad.” The program was created by Isaac Stern as a solution for musicians who did not want to have their music detrimentally affected by having to spend three years playing band music.

He was able to earn his bachelor’s degree in music at Tel-Aviv University during his army service; he then did a master’s degree at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and an artist diploma at Juilliard in New York, which he finished two years ago.

Weisman started studying piano at age 6. When he was 10, his family moved for three years to Boston, where his father worked for the Jewish Agency. While in Boston, he studied at the New England Conservatory Division Pre-College Division. He finished high school in Israel and then came to Juilliard as an undergraduate. He has been in New York ever since, playing music, and now teaching at Juilliard.

Weisman got involved with the Israeli Chamber Project from its outset. He is involved in all of its United States-based activities and helps coordinate tours in Israel. He especially enjoys playing with this same core group many times during the year. “We have time to grow together and create a unified sound,” he said, “which you only get in this type of group.”

For Weisman, the group resonates at a deeply personal level, in part because of its Israeliness. “I am from there; I spent my childhood there; my entire family is there,” he said. “It’s how I identify myself — Israeli and musician are my strongest identifying traits — and I get so much pleasure playing with people who share those things.”

The Israeli Chamber Project performance is Sunday, Nov. 1, at 3 p.m., at the South Orange Performing Arts Center, 1 SOPAC Way in South Orange. Tickets are $15, $12, and $10. To make reservations, visit www.sopacnow.org or call (973) 313-ARTS.