The journey of the Maestro is rooted in a lifelong commitment to music and the joy it brings to people's lives. With numerous accolades and years of experience in the philharmonic sphere, the Maestro understands the transformative power of music. At Tahoe Philharmonic, this passion translates into a vibrant community that thrives on creativity, innovation, and the shared experience of live performance.

Bio

 TahoePhil Artistic Director and Conductor, James Rawie, founded the Symphonic Chorus of Puerto Rico, Sinfonia-Puerto Rico Chamber Orchestra, and TOCCATA-Tahoe Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. In 2024, after serving as Artistic Director and Conductor of TOCCATA Tahoe Symphony  Orchestra and Chorus for 19 years, he and wife Nancy founded Tahoe Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus.

 California born, Rawie's undergraduate years were spent at the University of California, Irvine, where his first academic degree was in Psychobiology in 1969. His musical studies there included: trumpet with Jimmy Sachs, voice with Heyden Blanchard, choral conducting with Dr. Maurice Allard, and orchestral conducting with Dr. Peter Odegard. 

He received a Master of Musical Arts degree in Orchestral Conducting from the State University of New York, Stonybrook in 1979 as a student of David Lawton and Arthur Weisberg. He prepared Bach's St. Matthew Passion with Dr. Otto Werner Mueller at Yale University-Norfolk. 

He studied in Berlin, Germany; at the Aspen Music Festival; and for ten summers with Helmuth Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival. Maestro Rawie conducted the premieres in Puerto Rico of: Brahms’ Requiem, Mozart's Requiem; Gounod's Missa Solemnis; Dvorák's Mass in D major, Mozart's Mass in C minor, and many of Bach's cantatas. In 1985 he led the first performance in Spanish of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, celebrating the tricentennial of the German master's birth which brought together 300 singers, the largest number ever to perform a major choral work in the history of Puerto Rico. 

From the operatic repertory, he has presented most of the Mozart operas and Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors. 

He took the Symphonic Chorus on tours to Spain, Catalonia, and Greece. He took TOCCATA on tours: 2015-Tuscany; 2017-Salzburg/Prague; 2019-Slovenia/Budapest; 2022-Toulouse/Barcelona 2024-Greece.  

James has been Xterra Triathlon age group champion for the SouthEastern or Western USA divisions for 14 consecutive years, 2017 & 2024 US National Champion, and is an Ironman. He was 2022 Xterra World Champion at Lake Molveno, Italy.