Conductor David Alexander Rahbee is a native of Boston. He studied at the Pierre Monteux School in Hancock, Maine with Charles Bruck and Michael Jinbo, as well as at Indiana University (Violin and Composition), at the New England Conservatory (Conducting) and at the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna. He further refined his artistic training by participating in master-classes with Kurt Masur, Sir Colin Davis, Jorma Panula, Zdeněk Mácal, Peter Eötvös, Zoltán Peskó, Helmut Rilling and Otto-Werner Mueller.

From 1997 to 2001 David Rahbee was conductor and music director of the Fidelio Chamber Orchestra in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and from 2002 to 2005 he worked as an assistant of Marcello Viotti.

In 2003 he was the recipient of the American-Austrian Foundation's "Herbert von Karajan Fellowship" for young conductors and in 2005 the International "Richard-Wagner-Verband-Stipend" in Bayreuth, Germany.

At the Salzburg Festival in 2003 he was assistant conductor of the International Attergau Institute Orchestra, where he also worked artistically with members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and guest conductors including Bobby McFerrin.

At the International Bartók Festival in Szombathely, Hungary, he has regularly conducted works on the closing concerts of the festival with the Savaria Symphony Orchestra.

He has appeared in concert with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, the Dresden Hochschule Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica de Loja (Ecuador), the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, "Cool Opera" of Norway (members of the Stavanger Symphony), the Savaria Symphony Orchestra, Schönbrunner Schloss Orchestra (Vienna), the Gächinger Kantorei, the Bach-Kollegium Stuttgart, the Kammerphilharmonie Berlin-Brandenburg and the Divertimento Ensemble of Milan.

In the genre of contemporary musical theatre, Rahbee lead a fully staged production of Bruno Maderna's chamber opera Satyricon with the Divertimento Ensemble. He also lead this ensemble in the Italian premiere of Helmut Lachenmann's „Mouvement – vor der Erstarrung“.

His arrangement of the Overture to Rossini's Barber of Seville for trombone quartet has been recorded and released on CD by Summit Music, played by the quartet known as Four of a Kind, four of the world’s greatest trombonists. This arrangement, along with many others, is published by Warwick Music, England.

As a composer, David Alexander Rahbee has over 40 works to his credit. He was also a violinist in the Prometheus Chamber Orchestra of New York.

 

"...he displayed a technical precision and at the same time showed the highest musicality in such an impressive way that I would entrust all of my scores to him to work on and perform in the future. I wish to this great musician all the support for his advancement as a conductor and I am convinced that through this support, he will come through by extraordinary achievement, thanks to his gift, his spirited energy and his human as well as artistic integrity."

- Helmut Lachenmann