Our TEAM

James Rawie

Executive Artistic Director

JAMES RAWIE is Artistic Director and Conductor of the four musical organizations he founded: the Symphonic Chorus of Puerto Rico, Sinfonia-Puerto Rico Chamber Orchestra, Mayormente Mozart Festival, and the Tahoe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus.

California born, he received a B.S in Psychology from UC Irvine (1969), where he studied trumpet with Jimmy Sachs, voice with Heyden Blanchard, choral conducting with Maurice Allard, and orchestral conducting with Peter Odegard. In 1979, he earned a Master of Musical Arts degree in Orchestral Conducting from SUNY, Stonybrook as a student of David Lawton and Arthur Weisberg.

He prepared Bach's St. Matthew Passion with Otto Werner Mueller at Yale-Norfolk, studied in Berlin, Germany, at the Aspen Music Festival, and spent ten summers with Helmuth Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival. Maestro Rawie conducted the Puerto Rico Premieres of Brahms’ Requiem, Mozart's Requiem and Mass in C Minor, Gounod's Missa Solemnis;, Dvorak's Mass in D, and 21 of Bach's cantatas.

In 1985 he premiered Bach's St. Matthew Passion in Spanish, celebrating Bach’s tricentennial with 300 singers and becoming the largest performance of a major choral work in the history of Puerto Rico. He has also presented most of the Mozart operas, and Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors. And, in 1986, he founded the Luis A. Ferré Piano Competition.

Director Rawie has taken the Symphonic Chorus on tours to Spain, Catalonia, and Greece; he has also taken the Tahoe Orchestra & Chorus on tours including Italy (2015), Central Europe (2017), Eastern Europe (2019), Southern France (2021), and Greece (2024). 

Rawie is also an accomplished triathlete and Ironman, with five years as the age group champion in the XTERRA Triathlon (SouthEastern USA division), 2008 National Bronze Medalist, 2012 US National Champion, and and other national championships for his age group.