About
The Orchestra and Community Choral Artists of the Tahoe Area (TOCCATA) 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 mission 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.
TOCCATA’s first season was unfunded and featured madrigal/motet concerts and chamber music. In 2006 they received a grant from the Carol F. Buck Foundation which led to its official debut at Sand Harbor with the 25th John Lennon Memorial Concert. The 2008 Charter Membership Drive helped reach additional lakeside communities and Reno, and in 2009 the name Tahoe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus was created to identify an ensemble regularly performing major symphonic works.
Growth in our nine year lifespan has been notable. To increase the number of young people attending our concerts, our latest grant request is 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. In 2013 the TOCCATA-Guttman Young Artists Piano Competition was created. The winner later performs a concerto with the TOCCATA orchestra. TOCCATA invites all our donors, performers and audience members to join us in celebrating our 10th Anniversary throughout 2015, and especially our first tour to Italy in April.