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The history of CAMA begins in the fall of 1919 when
a group of community-minded Santa Barbarans came together in the optimistic
years following World War I to create the Civic Music Committee. Their
ambition was to present the finest in musical performances, beginning
with the new Los Angeles Philharmonic, founded by philanthropist William
Andrews Clark, Jr. that same year. The group's work was taken over by
the Community Arts Association’s Music Branch in 1926, which in
time evolved into today's Community Arts Music Association (CAMA).
SHORT HISTORY of CAMA {Updated 2006-2007 Season} For 88 seasons, the Community Arts Music Association has been Santa Barbara’s premier presenter of classical music by the greatest orchestras and musicians from around the world. CAMA is the direct descendent of the Community Arts Association, which contributed so much to Santa Barbara’s artistic culture during the 1920s and 30s. CAMA's Mission Statement (adopted January 27, 2000): The purpose of CAMA is to enrich Santa Barbara’s cultural life by the presentation of a variety of live performances by world-renowned performers and orchestras at the highest level of artistic excellence. Our mission to serve the community includes a commitment to expand and enrich audience appreciation and education through various forms of media and to offer associated music outreach programs to the widest possible audience. HISTORY OF CAMA 1919 and 1920s With the end of the First World War in 1918 the United States enjoyed a new flowering of the arts. In Los Angeles, William Andrews Clark, Jr., a successful attorney, gifted musician and son of former Senator William Andrews Clark, Sr. of Montana, decided to found a new Philharmonic Orchestra – even though Los Angeles already had a struggling Symphony Orchestra. With the backing of his family fortune and encouragement from his father, W. A. Clark, Jr. provided the initial funding, selected and hired a musical director, set up a Board of Directors of prominent citizens, auditioned and hired musicians from around the country, started rehearsals on October 13, 1919, hired Trinity Auditorium and on the Friday afternoon of October 24, gave the first sold-out performance to an audience of 2,400, including W. A. Clark, Sr., by then a Santa Barbara resident. In Santa Barbara, also in 1919, a cadre of music lovers formed and attempted to bring major out-of-town musical events to Santa Barbara. This organization, known as the Civic Music Committee, had planned and contracted their first season of musical presentations by late 1919. Mrs. Alexander S. Soper chaired the Committee. David Gray, Sr. was on the original committee and contributed financial support. The first concert event took place on February 3, 1920 at the Potter Theatre with a presentation of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra. This orchestra of ninety accomplished musicians arrived by train from Los Angeles. By all accounts it was an impressive, sold-out event. The second concert of the 1920 Season was on February 17: a recital by Amy Neill, violin, accompanied by Miss Mary Cameron. The third and final concert of the inaugural season was by the newly founded Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. This concert, given on the Saturday evening of March 6, 1920, just four months after the orchestra’s founding by W. A. Clark, Jr., was presented to a sold-out audience of 1,110 in the Potter Theatre. Walter Henry Rothwell (former conductor of the St. Paul Symphony), who was to continue as conductor for eight years, lead 90 musicians in a program of Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony No. 8, Two Nocturnes (“Clouds” and “Festivals”) of Debussy, Wagner’s Overture to Tannhäuser, Liszt’s Symphonic Poem No. 4 “Orpheus,” Lalo’s Intermezzo and Rondo from his Concerto for Cello (with Ilya Bronson as soloist) and Chabrier’s Rhapsody for Orchestra, España. The fee for this first LA Philharmonic concert in Santa Barbara was about $1,000. Advertisements in local papers listed ticket prices from 50 cents to $2. This first Los Angeles Philharmonic concert established an ongoing relationship between the Santa Barbara community and the Los Angeles Philharmonic that continues to the present. In addition to the founding of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Santa Barbara’s Civic Music Committee in 1919, a drama-oriented committee was formed to present an open-air spring festival in Santa Barbara called “La Primavera.” The new committee decided initially to call themselves the Community Arts Players and later the Community Arts Association. Their pageant, with a cast and crew of over 300, involved music, dance and drama, and was presented on May 28 and 29, 1920. It was a popular and critical success, but a financial disaster. The group tried again in the late summer and presented “The Quest,” an historical pageant with scenes from Greek history, the Middle Ages, Elizabethan times and the Renaissance. It too was well-received but financially intractable. Thus, the first Community Arts Association disbanded. Within weeks, a new group formed with many of the same members and the same name: Community Arts Association. This time, with a $50 loan, they set off on a mission to organize, foster and support the arts in Santa Barbara. Mrs. Hilmar Koefed and Miss Pearl Chase were on the committee. On April 24, 1922, the group obtained a charter as a nonprofit corporation. The mission of CAA from its Articles of Incorporation was “to afford individuals an opportunity for self-expression, training and education in music, drama and the allied arts and to aid in the cultural improvement of the people and in the beautification of the City of Santa Barbara” (CAMA files). The new CAA soon divided into four major divisions: (1) the Santa Barbara School of the Arts (independently instituted and subsequently amalgamated with CAA), (2) the Drama Branch, (3) the Music Branch and (4) the Plans and Planting Committee (added in 1922). The first chairman of the Music Branch was Mrs. Albert Herter. In the fall of 1921, planning began for the purchase of the old Lobero Theatre as a home for the Drama Branch. In February 1922, a group of men purchased the property for $25,000, organized the Lobero Theatre Company and agreed to turn the property over to the CAA Board in exchange for its equivalent in stock of the Theatre Company, provided $75,000 worth of stock could be sold within six months. In less than three weeks, $101,000 was raised in addition to the $25,000 (1922 CAA document, CAMA files). Upon inspection of the original structure of adobe, brick and wood, the decision was made to build a modern theatre in its place. Architects George Washington Smith and Lutah Maria Riggs began plans for the project and the theatre was constructed during the winter and spring of 1923-1924. On August 4, 1924 the Lobero Theatre was ready for its historic reopening. The event was celebrated by Santa Barbara’s first annual Old Spanish Days Fiesta, which continues to this day. The year after the new Lobero Theatre was finished, it came through the 1925 earthquake undamaged. The division to which modern-day CAMA traces its lineage is, of course, the Music Branch, which is the only one of the four branches still in existence. This Music Branch spun off into semi-autonomy in the fall of 1920 and was offered a fully financed concert orchestra led by Georges (also called “Roger”) Clerbois in 1921. Clerbois, a graduate of the Conservatory of Music of Brussels and of the Schola Cantorum of Paris, was a composer and director of the Clerbois Little Symphony. The new orchestra gave its first concert in March 1921 as the Community Arts String Orchestra. Its first venue was the old Recreation Center (100 E. Carrillo Street). Each concert, including rehearsals, cost about $700 to present. Tickets were priced from 25 cents to $1 for a single ticket and from $1.25 to $5.50 for a season subscription. The first season included six concerts held from March to May 1921. A second series followed from July to September 1921; a third from November 1921 to January 1922; and a fourth series from February to April 1922. This was indeed a highly ambitious performing ensemble. The Music Branch sponsored music classes and summer lectures by Donald Francis Tovey, Reid Professor of Music at Edinburgh University, and formed a Community Arts Chorus with Lyle Ring as its first director. The Chorus was subsequently led by composer Arthur Bliss (1924-1925), who later became Director of Music at the BBC during World War II; and then by Harold Gregson (1925-1928). In November 1922, with aid from Dr. Henry S. Pritchett (former President of MIT, President of the Carnegie Foundation, and a Santa Barbara resident), the Carnegie Corporation of New York granted CAA an annuity of $25,000 for five years in recognition of the work being done by CAA and as a means of enlarging this work and widening its scope. In 1925, after the great earthquake, this grant was extended to run five years past that date with the addition of $25,000 toward losses from that catastrophe. The CAA Plans and Planting Committee oversaw much of the rebuilding in Santa Barbara in the Spanish Colonial tradition of architecture. From 1921 to 1925, the Civic Music Committee continued to present the Los Angeles Philharmonic in an annual series of concerts. In 1925, the CAA Music Branch and Georges Clerbois parted ways; and, in 1926, the Civic Music Committee disbanded. At that time, the CAA Music Branch took over the responsibility for sponsoring the annual series of Los Angeles Philharmonic concerts. By the 1926-1927 season, the CAA Music Branch Board, headed by John D. Wright, included such notables as Miss Amy duPont, Mr. Frank A. Mulhauser, Mr. T. D. Plumer, Mrs. Henry Eichheim (Vice-Chariman) and Mrs. Francis Price. The Associate Membership fee for 1926 was $1. Sustaining Members could join with a contribution of $5, $10 or $25. John Berger, in his November 14, 1968 article, entitled Community Arts Music Association of Santa Barbara: History of Growth, writes: “Inspired by the late Ethel Roe Eichheim, the Music Branch raised $50,000 and invited the Persinger String Quartet [local alias for the San Francisco String Quartet]… to come to Santa Barbara for a two-year residence [from 1927-1928].” From 1926-1928, the Music Branch of CAA sponsored, financed, organized and/or supported seven different simultaneous concert series and numerous other musical activities, including: the Los Angeles Philharmonic (see above); the Persinger String Quartet Series (performing as far afield as Toronto, Canada with CAA support); the Community Arts Chorus Series; the Artist’s Series (of famous soloists); summer Community Band Concert Series; summer Children’s Chorus; and the Community Arts Orchestra “Pops” Series. During this time the CAA Music Branch also founded a men’s chorus, taught music education and performance classes, gave away music scholarships and even provided strolling musicians on State Street for Fiesta activities! In July 1926 the Morning Press announced that Major Max C. Fleischmann would provide a gift of $5,000 to create public band concerts for Old Spanish Days Fiesta. Fleischmann was the son of the founder of Fleischmann Yeast Company and a financier for the construction of the Santa Barbara harbor and the expansion of Cottage Hospital. The first band concert was held at the Plaza Del Mar Band Shell (constructed in 1919) on July 27, 1926. A committee from the Community Arts Association hired Los Angeles bandleader Signor Indreani for the occasion, who brought with him musicians from John Phillip Sousa’s marching band and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Fleischmann continued to finance band concerts for the next two years. In September 1928 he created the Santa Barbara Foundation along with Harold Chase, Thomas Storke, Dwight Murphy, Bernard Hoffmann and others. The Foundation’s first grant was awarded to the Santa Barbara Band, to be administered by the CAA Music Branch. After the 1929 stock market crash there was an inevitable streamlining and tightening of the focus of the Music Branch’s key objectives. Nonetheless, the organization continued to present an unbroken series of concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and other series presenting the greatest living classical artists. Soloists appearing in CAA recitals in the 1920s included Pablo Casals, Tito Schipa, Efrem Zimbalist, Walter Gieseking, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and more. 1930s A 1930 chart issued by CAA lists a gross turnover of $200,000, with net capital assets of $225,000. Thirty employees worked for CAA at that time. The Association provided “education, entertainment and service for 25,000 persons through 150,000 contacts” (CAMA files). The Great Depression had a devastating effect on people and organizations throughout the United States and CAA was not exempt. However, the Music Branch was getting along relatively better than its sister branches. By 1941, all the other branches of the original Community Arts Association had passed out of existence. In the 1930s, CAA Music Branch concerts moved to the Granada and then Arlington Theatre (and back and forth again over the decades). Mrs. Francis E. Boyd (CAMA President 1952-1955) remembers that “the limousines would roll up one after another and the chauffeurs would hop out and open the doors for the women, elegant in their jewels, gowns and furs, and the men, dashing in their tuxedos. It was a wonderful time.” On January 7, 1930, the CAA Music Branch presented Vladimir Horowitz at the Lobero Theatre. A newspaper review from January 8 by “P. H. W.” states that “to say that the concert… was magnificent is expressing it… mildly… Members of the [CAA Music Branch]… must feel very proud that they sponsored last night’s musical event and gave… music lovers one of the most divine evenings of music the community has afforded in a long time” (CAMA files). On April 29, 1936, the CAA Music Branch presented the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Leopold Stokowski. This was the first touring orchestra to be presented apart from the LA Philharmonic – and the first Music Branch concert of any kind at the Arlington Theatre. An acoustical shell for the Arlington stage was constructed for the Orchestra’s concert, which featured a work by Santa Barbara’s own Henry Eichheim. CAMA Board Member Roger Phillips sums up the decade, noting that at a time “when 25% of the labor force was out of work and the bank failed and closed in 1933, CAMA was presenting the Los Angeles Philharmonic, pianist José Iturbi and others. In the later 30s, while Neville Chamberlain was on his ill-fated hat-in-hand visit to appease Hitler, and while the Nazis were invading Poland, CAMA was presenting soprano Kirsten Flagstad, pianist-composer Igor Stravinsky, modern dance pioneer Martha Graham and Company, contralto Marian Anderson and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.” Notable soloists and ensembles appearing in CAA concerts in the 1930s included Vladimir Horowitz, Jascha Heifitz (twice), Paul Robeson, Gregor Piatigorsky (twice), Mary Wigman, the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo (twice), Lotte Lehmann, Artur Schnabel, Martha Graham (three times), the Philadelphia Orchestra with Leopold Stokowski, Igor Stravinsky, Marian Anderson, Isaac Stern, and more. 1940s The Music Branch (1921-1940), as the only surviving arm of CAA, reorganized and incorporated under its present name, Community Arts Music Association (CAMA), in 1940. Today, CAMA alone (with the CAA-related offshoot in the Lobero Theatre Foundation) carries forward the tradition begun in 1919. Mrs. Francis Price was the first chairman of the ‘new’ organization. Roger Phillips notes that even “as the war clouds of the 40s billowed ominously overhead CAMA continued to present a string of concerts…” In the years 1940-1942, Artur Rubinstein, Marian Anderson, Martha Graham, Isaac Stern, Nathan Milstein, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Jan Peerce, and Vladimir Horowitz all visited Santa Barbara. In 1942-1943 the Association was commended for its participation in the Chamber of Commerce’s “Thumbs Up Throughout the War” Campaign. The 1942-1943 Season was CAMA’s only “dark year” and there was no regular lineup of concerts. It is thus also one of only three seasons since its founding in 1919 in which the Los Angeles Philharmonic did not appear in Santa Barbara. This “dim out” broke toward the end of 1943 with a September 21 recital by soprano Lotte Lehmann, followed by a December 7 concert by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. During the 1940s, in addition to recitals by legendary soloists, CAMA also presented the Los Angeles Philharmonic (up to five times per season) with conductors Leopold Stokowski, Bruno Walter, Sir John Barbirolli, Alfred Wallenstein, George Szell, and John Barnett. 1950s During the 1950s, CAMA was a member of the Southern California Symphony Association, a group of partner-organizations in various southern California cities where the Los Angeles Philharmonic played small, more publicly accessible concerts. The CAMA Women’s Board was founded in 1951 with Mrs. Horace Gray as its first Chairman. Notes from Mrs. Lewis Motler (“Dot”) Smith state that in 1951-1952, CAMA was paying about $2,500 to produce each concert: a total of $12,500 for five concerts in a season. The main CAMA Board was running a yearly deficit. Mrs. Smith tells us “that’s when [the CAMA Women’s Board] came into the picture. The main Board needed some outside support and Katharine Gray got it started… to help sell the tickets, and raise money…” The Women’s Board organized a Preview Lecture Series. During Dot Smith’s presidency (1956-1960), the lectures were held at the Mirasol Hotel in the Garden room, with luncheons following. Mr. William Hartshorn, Director of Music for Los Angeles Public Schools, gave the first five Preview Lectures (Dot Smith, 1989, CAMA archives). Notable events from the 1950s included CAMA’s presentation of the one-hundredth official concert by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Santa Barbara on November 5, 1952. Mayor Norris Montgomery commemorated the occasion with the declaration of “Symphony Week” from November 2 to 8. The Boston Symphony, with Maestro Pierre Monteux, made its only appearance in Santa Barbara on May 5, 1953 as part of its first visit to the West Coast since 1915. CAMA Board Member Steven Cloud notes that “with the 1950s came the expansion of the orchestra series and concerts by the New York Philharmonic under their dynamic new conductor, Leonard Bernstein.” CAMA productions from the 1950s also featured recitals by Robert Cassadesus, Rudolf Serkin, and Erica Morini; and concerto appearances by Claudio Arrau and Mstislav Rostropovich, both performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic directed by Arturo Basile. 1960s In the 1960s, Women’s Board-sponsored CAMA concert Preview Lectures continued with speakers such as Dr. Raymond Kendall. Ethel-May Dorsey Conrad, writing in 1980 on the history of the Women’s Board, notes that “in 1964… [President Naomi MacLean] started a cookbook, and sent her members scurrying over the country to procure recipes from famous persons. The collection was called ‘Cooking with the Stars’. It sold for $5.00 per copy and by 1965 Naomi’s cookbook had netted a profit of $2,906.35…” Women’s Board Fashion Shows were the most lucrative fund raising events. President Lee Ott sponsored the first I. Magnin Fashion Show in 1966, given at the Coral Casino. Conrad writes that “when Beverly Jackson described it in her column in the News-Press, she gave almost as much attention to the gowns worn by the patrons as she did to the creations worn by the models.” Starting in the 1960s, the Women’s Board organized a number of bus trips. Each spring the women selected a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Other bus trips were to concerts at the Music Center, Shrine Auditorium, the PCPA Theatre at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria and the Theaterfest in Solvang. CAMA celebrated its 50th Concert Season in 1968-1969, commemorated by a proclamation from Mayor W. Don MacGillivray. Notable concerts from the 1960s included performances by the Cleveland Orchestra with George Szell (twice), the New York Philharmonic (twice) with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa, the Concertgebouw Orchestra with Eugen Jochum, and the Philadelphia Orchestra with Eugene Ormandy (twice); recitals by Van Cliburn, Rudolf Serkin, Artur Rubinstein, Robert Casadesus, Isaac Stern, and Wilhelm Kempff; and appearances by Henryk Szeryng, Marilyn Horne, Philippe Entremont, Alfred Brendel (twice), a young Izthak Perlman, André Watts, and Ruggiero Ricci. 1970s A message from CAMA President Arthur Gaudi in a 1971-1972 Annual Report gives “special mention to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and [music director] Zubin Mehta” as “the mainstay of our seasons.” From 1970 to 1979 the Los Angeles Philharmonic visited Santa Barbara 47 times, six times in the 1975-1976 season alone! Women’s Board Preview Lectures continued in the 1970s. Ethel-May Dorsey Conrad writes that “to open the 1972 concert season, Dr. Raymond Kendall lectured from the stage of the Granada Theatre… Cornie Chapman and her committee had transformed the popcorn counter in the lobby into an attractive coffee table where refreshments were served as the preview guests arrived…” In 1971, with Pat Manchester as Women’s Board President and future Women’s Board (1972-1974) and CAMA (1980-1984) President Carolyn Panosian as benefits chairman, the Women’s Board booked the Bert Bacharach-Neil Simon Broadway hit Promises, Promises for two performances at the Granada Theatre. When the main CAMA Board booked the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a pops concert with Arthur Fiedler at the Earl Warren Showgrounds in September 1977, Women’s Board President (1976-1978) Christine Seemann helped to sell the attraction to the public. Despite the loss of I. Magnum sponsorship, the Women’s Board Fashion Shows continued with the annual sponsorship of Saks Fifth Avenue. Bus trips also continued through the 1970s and 1980s. A new ‘mobile musical van’ project was launched when Margo Chapman was elected Women’s Board President (1978-1981). The project brought music directly to local third graders via a music van staffed by Women’s Board volunteers under the direction of Christine Seemann. Ethel-May Dorsey Conrad writes that “the van was supplied with musical instruments which the children themselves could play. There were also musical tapes to acquaint the youngsters with orchestral sounds…” Notable concerts from the 1970s included performances by the Concertgebouw Orchestra with Bernard Haitink, the London Philharmonic with Erich Leinsdorf, the Cleveland Orchestra (twice) with Walter Susskind and Lorin Maazel, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Lawrence Foster, the Philadelphia Orchestra with Eugene Ormandy, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic with Edo de Waart; recitals by Isaac Stern and Philippe Entremont; and appearances by Misha Dichter, Jerome Lowenthal, Jens Harald Bratlie, Gundula Janowitz, Yehudi Menuhin, Pinchas Zukerman, and Garrick Ohlsson. 1980s The CAMA Women’s Board continued to sponsor Preview Lectures, which were very well attended. A 1981-1982 Preview Lecture schedule features lectures by Mr. Jerry Blackstone, Mr. William Prizer and Mrs. Marylka Limek-George of the Polish Dance Group, Mazowsze. Previews were held at the Music Academy of the West and at the Arlington Theatre. In 1982, future CAMA Board Member Steven Cloud and pianist Michael Isador founded Masterseries, an annual recital series that presented many notable recitalists from Yo-Yo Ma to Kiri Te Kanawa to Ivan Moravec. (Starting in 2001-2002, CAMA took up the responsibility of presenting the Masterseries concerts.) Notable concerts from the 1980s included concerts by the Philadelphia Orchestra with Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, the Cleveland Orchestra (three times) with Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi and Christoph Eschenbach, the Pittsburg Symphony Orchestra with André Previn, the Concertgebouw Orchestra with Bernard Haitink, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra with Christoph Eschenbach, the San Francisco Symphony with Edo De Waart, the Royal Philharmonic (twice) with Yehudi Menuhin and Vladimir Ashkenazy, the Chicago Symphony with Sir Georg Solti, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Simon Rattle, the St. Louis Symphony with Leonard Slatkin, the Bavarian Symphony of Munich with Sir Colin Davis and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra with Charles Dutoit; and appearances by Glenn Dicterow, Heiichiro Ohyama, Philippe Entremont, Myung-Whun Chung, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gidon Kremer, Shlomo Mintz, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Cho-Liang Lin, Elizabeth Söderström and Misha Dichter. 1990s CAMA celebrated its 75th Concert Season in 1993-1994, commemorated by a proclamation from Mayor Sheila Lodge. Since October 1990, the CAMA Women’s Board has distributed tickets to local Junior High and High School students for CAMA concerts in the Arlington Theatre. Starting in the 1997-1998 season, CAMA organized its Youth Audience Development program, collaborating with local colleges including UC Santa Barbara, Westmont College and Santa Barbara City College. The colleges organize academic courses whose curricula focus on CAMA’s concerts – the composers, pieces, performers, and historical context. During the 1996-1997 and 1997-1998 concert seasons, for the first time since the 1942-1943 World War II "dim out" year, the Los Angeles Philharmonic did not visit Santa Barbara. CAMA celebrated its 80th Concert Season in 1998-1999, commemorated by a proclamation from the County of Santa Barbara, signed on October 6, 1998 by the Clerk of the Board and the Supervisors of Districts One through Five. For this anniversary, CAMA Board Member Steven Cloud wrote: “Eight decades later CAMA remains the Grande Dame of Santa Barbara arts organizations… In every decade…since its founding, CAMA has presented the world’s greatest artists, maestros and orchestra…in Santa Barbara, along with its annual concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.” Notable concerts of the 1990s included performances by the San Francisco Symphony with Herbert Blomstedt, the Leningrad Philharmonic with Mariss Jansons, the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig with Kurt Masur, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with Jesús López-Cobos, the Moscow Philharmonic with Mark Ermler, the Russian National Orchestra with Mikhail Pletnev, the St. Louis Symphony (twice) with Leonard Slatkin and Hans Vonk, the Pittsburg Symphony with Loren Maazel, the Dresden Philharmonic with Philippe Entremont, the Orchestre National de France with Charles Dutoit, the Kirov Orchestra with Valery Gergiev, the Vienna Symphony with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, the Royal Philharmonic with Yuri Temirkanov, the Hong Kong Philharmonic with David Atherton, the Dresden Staatskapelle with Giuseppe Sinopoli, the Budapest Festival Orchestra with Iván Fischer, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields with Sir Neville Marriner, and the Philadelphia Orchestra with Wolfgang Sawallisch; recitals by Kathleen Battle, André Watts, and Kiri Te Kanawa; and appearances by Ursula Oppens, Peter Serkin, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Schlomo Mintz, Nigel Kennedy, Maxim Vengerov, Robert McDuffie, Dmitri Sitkovetsky, Cho-Liang Lin, Håkan Hardenberger, Edith Chen, Pamela Frank, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Alicia de Larrocha, Leila Josefowicz, Sergei Nakariakov, Felicity Lott, Pinchas Zukerman and Joshua Bell. 2000s Beginning in the 2000-2001 season, CAMA launched a model elementary school music appreciation program at La Patera School in Goleta. In the 2003-2004 season, Dr. David Malvinni developed a multimedia curriculum for the program, with units that focus on musical styles, history and diversity. Starting in the 2005-2006 season, the program was made available to other Santa Barbara County schools through a docent program. Dr. Malvinni also offers preview lectures for selected CAMA concerts through Santa Barbara City College’s Continuing Education Program. For the 2000-2001 season, CAMA Board Member Joan Benson, working with original Co-Chairs Nancy Wall and Jennifer Burrows, founded a second CAMA auxiliary board, the CAMA Fellows. The Fellows, a group of young music lovers, supported the CAMA Board's efforts in bringing music education to youth in Santa Barbara. Fellows events included pre-concert dinners, musical ‘informances’, and events to support Santa Barbara’s youth in music education. The Fellows disbanded in 2006. The 2001-2002 Season saw the revival of CAMA’s Artist Series in a new partnership with Masterseries, founded in 1982 by Steven Cloud and Michael Isador. Reviving a CAA Planting Branch tradition from the 1920s, the CAMA Women’s Board began hosting an annual Garden Tour in the spring of 2002. These tours have concluded with a ‘Celebrity Birdhouse Auction’, with silent and live auctions of birdhouses decorated or designed by local celebrities and artists. Notable concerts of the 2000s have included performances by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (twice) with Joshua Bell and Murray Perahia, the Hungarian National Philharmonic with Zoltán Kocsis, the Czech Philharmonic with Vladimir Ashkenazy, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Herbert Blomstedt, the Royal Philharmonic with Daniele Gatti, the San Francisco Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas, the Kirov Orchestra with Valery Gergiev, the London Philharmonic with Osmo Vänskä, the Pittsburgh Symphony with Sir Andrew Davis, and more; plus recitals by Joshua Bell, Pinchas Zukerman, Radu Lupu, Krystian Zimerman, András Schiff, Mitsuko Uchida, Renée Fleming (twice), Richard Goode, Alfred Brendel (twice), Eroica Trio, Hilary Hahn (twice), Samuel Ramey and Frederica von Stade, Dawn Upshaw, Stephen Hough (twice), and more. CAMA TODAY Arlington Series CAMA’s Arlington Series brings the world’s finest classical orchestras and recitalists to the Arlington Theatre. The Arlington Series is the direct descendant of CAMA’s original orchestra series, which has regularly presented internationally renowned orchestras and soloists to Santa Barbara audiences since the 1920s. The list of CAMA concert presentations represents artistry of the highest caliber. In addition to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, you can find names like the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the London Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Kirov Orchestra, and more. Masterseries at the Lobero Masterseries, founded by Stephen Cloud and classical pianist Michael Isador in November 1982, is dedicated to presenting the world’s finest classical music artists in recital in Santa Barbara. The list of artists who have performed in Santa Barbara under the banner of Masterseries includes such celebrated musicians as Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Jean-Pierre Rampal, flute; Joshua Bell and Hilary Hahn, violin; Thomas Hampson, baritone; Dawn Upshaw, soprano; András Schiff, Radu Lupu and Alfred Brendel, piano; Christopher Parkening, guitar; Evelyn Glennie, percussion; Alban Berg, Emerson and Juilliard String Quartets; Eroica Trio, and more. In 2001, Masterseries, now presented regularly at the Lobero Theatre, became part of CAMA, with a yearly endowment sponsorship provided by Esperia Foundation. The Big Picture For 88 seasons, CAMA has presented the world's great classical orchestras and soloists to Santa Barbara audiences. CAMA Board Member Roger Phillips writes: “Simply stated, we believe there is no similarly sized city in the entire country (and maybe the world) which has offered to its citizens the variety, quality, reputation and substance of classical music performance over such a long time period.” Former CAMA President Arthur Gaudi (1969-1974) states: “In America you cannot do better than [CAMA]. Even major cities like New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles would be elated to have these orchestras. It is a testimony to the quality of the people involved in [CAMA] that distinguished artists, conductors and symphonies make their sojourn to our city year after year.” |
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