Philippe Rayer carried out the main part of his training with José de Tourris, Christian Chanel, Philippe Jouanneau (for the guitar) and Xavier Cauhépé (lute). A graduate of the Volos (Greece) International Summer Music Academy, he also obtained a premier prix in guitar from the Versailles and Orsay conservatories, a prize for coming first in his class and an Honour Prize from the City of Versailles, the prize for best performance at the Guitar'Essonne Festival, premier prix in lute and early music from the Rueil-Malmaison Conservatory and a prize from the Fondation de France in 1987 and again in 1989. He has appeared, alone and with the Versailles Guitar Quartet (of which he is a founding member and which won First Prize at the Völklingen International Competition in 1991), or soloist with orchestra, in most of the major cities of France, in festivals (La Côte Languedocienne, Villemomble, La Butte Montmartre, Robion, 'Musique au Volcan', 'Carrefour de la Guitare' at the L’Epau Abbey...), and abroad: in Great Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, Spain (numerous tours in the Baleares... ), Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, South America, Poland (concerts as soloist and recordings with the philharmonic orchestras of Wałbrzych and Olsztyn), concerts and master classes in Moscow, Kaliningrad, Kiev and Saint Petersburg, Romania, Lithuania, Italy, Turkey, Morocco, Slovakia, the United States...
For a number of years, he has been a regular contributor to the French magazine Les cahiers de la guitare.
Several composers have written for him (Mustapha Aïcha, Milton Barnes, Jacques Veyrier, Franz Constant...), and he has given the first performance of and played numerous concertos for one or more guitars by Pierre Wissmer, Franz Constant, Roger Calmel, Jacques Cerf, Jean-Louis Houlez, Gaston Martin, Ferdinand Weiss... He is regularly invited as a jury member in France and abroad (Nantes, Versailles, Toulon, Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Lubin [Poland] International Guitar Competition...).
He has made several recordings with the Versailles Guitar Quartet, including one devoted to 20th-century works for four guitars and orchestra by Georges Delerue, Federico Moreno Torroba and Franz Constant (Concerto Solstice, written for them) with the Sudetan Philharmonic Orchestra of Wałbrzych, Poland. Another, recorded for Naxos and with the Barcelona Symphony & Catalonia National Orchestra, features Leonardo Balada's Concerto for Four Guitars.
He has also recorded Pierre Wissmer's complete works for and with guitar including his Guitar Concerto with the Olsztyn Philharmonic Orchestra.
Henceforth living in Nantes, he is a professor at the Carquefou Conservatory.
Philippe Rayer plays the 'z' model and a creation, the 'Quindecacorde', made by Antoine Pappalardo.