Attending performances of live music is an enjoyable experience! Our variety of music and location makes frequent attendance available and affordable. The TOCCATA-Tahoe Symphony and Chorus are known for quality concerts featuring local musicians of all ages in small, intimate venues. Our artists are committed to providing a unique experience in every performance.

Our Mission

The mission of TOCCATA is to raise awareness and appreciation of Classical Orchestral and Choral music by bringing quality, affordable performances to the greater Reno-Tahoe area, and to provide a venue for accomplished musicians to display and develop their talents.

For most of our Concerts, we take our music “to the people” instead of having them drive to and from Reno. Many in our audience are seniors and find it difficult to get to Reno from Tahoe and Carson Valley, especially in the winter when they would have to cope with ice and snow and early onset of darkness. They are grateful to have this music available “in their backyard”.

In addition to providing accessible classical music to the public, we are able to offer approximately 160 artists the opportunity to perform with a high quality ensemble. Most are adults who have a passion for performing classical music and lack a forum in which to so do. Some players have even contacted the conductor before moving to the area to assure that they would, in fact, have a group with which to perform. We also support young artists who are able to have their first experience of playing with a quality orchestra, together with many of their professional music teachers.

We and our donors have raised funds to send many young people to the Luzerne Summer Music Camp, where they are able to immerse themselves in Music with their peers for several weeks. A local children’s Chorus, the North Lake Tahoe Children’s Choir, has also performed with us (twice each year, since 2017).

Our History

'The Orchestra and Community Choral Artists of the Tahoe Area' was founded in 2005 by James and Nancy Rawie as a 501(c)(3) non-profit musical arts organization based at Lake Tahoe, Nevada. TOCCATA’s first season was unfunded, and featured madrigal/motet concerts and chamber music.

In 2006 TOCCATA received a grant from the Carol F. Buck Foundation which led to our official debut at Sand Harbor with the 25th John Lennon Memorial Concert. In 2007 funding increased as more individuals and local foundations began to demonstrate their belief in TOCCATA’s future and appreciation of its quality. Our 2008 Charter Membership Drive helped reach more lakeside communities and Reno. In 2009 the name 'Toccata-Tahoe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus' was created to identify an ensemble regularly performing major symphonic works.

TOCCATA’s growth in its fifteen-year lifespan has been notable. With mostly word of mouth advertising and an occasional mention in the “weekend-what-to-do-list” we have attracted many of the area’s music lovers and a remarkable number of talented musicians to join us in appreciating and producing some of the world’s most beautiful music. We have seen gratifying growth in attendance, enthusiasm, donations, and ticket sales. In hopes of increasing the number of young people attending our concerts, our latest grant request is to several foundations to fund “Discovering Classical Music”, a program to take quality “fun” presentations to public schools to introduce young people to the richness of classical music.

The most exciting development in celebrating our 15th Anniversary in 2020 is finding that the Robert Glenn Rapp Foundation will help co-sponsor our fifteenth season, and also give us a challenge grant to start an endowment. If we can raise $50,000 in 2020, they will match it. Our audiences are invited to help us in this important quest.

Our 2015 tour to Italy, 2017 tour to Salzburg-Prague, and our 2019 tour to Slovakia/Hungary, all with Elizabeth Pitcairn as guest soloist, were absolutely wonderful. In 2021 we will take donors and performers to Southern France.