Community Arts Music Association (CAMA) of Santa Barbara is the oldest arts organization in Santa Barbara, California, United States.
Santa Barbara is a coastal city in, and the county seat of, Santa Barbara County in the U.S. state of California. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Santa Barbara's climate is often described as Mediterranean, and the city has been promoted as the "American Riviera". As of 2018, the city had an estimated population of 91,350, up from 88,410 in 2010, making it the second most populous city in the county after Santa Maria. The contiguous urban area, which includes the cities of Goleta and Carpinteria, along with the unincorporated regions of Isla Vista, Montecito, Mission Canyon, Hope Ranch, Summerland, and others, has an approximate population of 220,000. The population of the entire county in 2010 was 423,895.
California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents across a total area of about 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2), California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 9.7 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California's most populous city, and the country's second-most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The City and County of San Francisco is both the country's second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs.
CAMA began in the fall of 1919 when a group of community-minded Santa Barbarans came together in the years following World War I to create the Civic Music Committee. Their goal was to present 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.
World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, the Seminal Catastrophe, and initially in North America as the European War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the resulting 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.
Since the 1920s, CAMA has presented such artists as Pablo Casals, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vladimir Horowitz, Jascha Heifetz, Igor Stravinsky, Artur Schnabel, Isaac Stern and Marian Anderson, with yearly performances from the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Since the 1950s, the orchestra series has expanded and now includes concerts by a variety of orchestras, from the New York Philharmonic to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Pau Casals i Defilló, usually known in English as Pablo Casals, was a cellist, composer, and conductor from Catalonia. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time. He made many recordings throughout his career, of solo, chamber, and orchestral music, also as conductor, but he is perhaps best remembered for the recordings of the Bach Cello Suites he made from 1936 to 1939. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy.
Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the late Romantic period. Some of his compositions are staples in the classical music repertoire.
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was an American classical pianist and composer born in the Russian Empire. He was acclaimed for his virtuoso technique, his tone color, and the excitement engendered by his playing. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the La Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September. Gustavo Dudamel is the Music Director, Esa-Pekka Salonen is Conductor Laureate, and Zubin Mehta is Conductor Emeritus.
Esa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is principal conductor and artistic advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and music director-designate of the San Francisco Symphony.
The Music Center is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. Located in downtown Los Angeles, The Music Center is home to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theater, Mark Taper Forum, Roy and Edna Disney / CalArts Theatre, and Walt Disney Concert Hall. Each year, The Music Center welcomes more than 1.3 million people to performances by its four internationally renowned resident companies: Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and Center Theatre Group (CTG) as well as performances by the dance series Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center. The center is home to on-going community events, arts festivals, outdoor concerts, participatory arts activities and workshops, and educational programs.
Thomas Adès is a British composer, pianist and conductor.
The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is one of the halls in the Los Angeles Music Center, which is one of the three largest performing arts centers in the United States. The Music Center's other halls include the Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theatre, and Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Shahrdad Rohani also spelled Shardad Rohani is an Iranian-American composer, violinist/pianist, and conductor. His style is contemporary and he is well known for composing and conducting classical, instrumental, adult contemporary/new age, film soundtrack as well as pop music. As of August 2016, he is the music director of the Tehran Symphony Orchestra.
Hila Plitmann is an operatic soprano specializing in the performance of new works.
Heiichiro Ohyama is a Japanese conductor and violist.
Deborah Borda is the president and chief executive officer of the New York Philharmonic. Previously with the New York Philharmonic for eight seasons as its executive director, Borda spent 17 years as the president and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic prior to returning to the New York Philharmonic in 2017.
Pacific Symphony is a symphony orchestra located in Orange County, California. The orchestra performs at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, part of Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. From 1987-2016, the orchestra's Summer Festival concerts took place at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre in Irvine, California.
Zachary Carrettin is an American violinist, violist, conductor, and music educator. Carrettin is currently the Artistic Director and Executive Director of Boulder Bach Festival.
The Peninsula Symphony is an American symphony orchestra, based in the San Francisco Peninsula, California. The orchestra consists of over 90 community musicians. In 1995, the Peninsula Symphony was featured in a PBS broadcast.
El Sistema is a publicly financed, voluntary sector, music-education program, founded in Venezuela in 1975 by Venezuelan educator, musician, and activist José Antonio Abreu. It later adopted the motto "Music for Social Change." El Sistema-inspired programs provide what the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies describes as "free classical music education that promotes human opportunity and development for impoverished children." By 2015, according to official figures, El Sistema included more than 400 music centers and 700,000 young musicians. The original program in Venezuela involves four after-school hours of musical training and rehearsal each week, plus additional work on the weekends. Most El Sistema-inspired programs in the United States provide seven or more hours of instruction per week, as well as free use of an instrument.
Erica Muhl is an American composer and conductor who has been dean of the USC Iovine and Young Academy since July 2018. She formerly served as dean of the University of Southern California Roski School of Art and Design in Los Angeles from 2012 to 2018, and prior to that was associate dean and professor of composition at the Thornton School of Music. She received an Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999.
The Association of California Symphony Orchestras (ACSO) was founded in 1969 by a small group of committed orchestra managers who believed in the power of personal networking.
Gisele Ben-Dor is an American Israeli orchestra conductor of Uruguayan origin.
The Pasadena Symphony and POPS is an American orchestra based in Pasadena, California. In 2010 it took up residence at the Ambassador Auditorium, where its Classics Series runs from October through April. Since 2012 it performs a summer series at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden from June through September.
Christopher Rountree is an American conductor known for founding the Los Angeles chamber group wild Up, an ensemble that blends new music, classical repertoire, performance art and pop. Wild Up was named "Best Classical Music of 2012" by the Los Angeles Times.
The Hollywood Chamber Orchestra (HCO) is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, and founded in 2015 by musicians Noah Gladstone and Mark Robertson, who are also co-music directors. Its first public performance was on August 8, 2015, at the Colburn School's Zipper Hall. The program consisted of all horn concertos and was presented by the 2015 International Horn Society. Included on the program was the world premiere of Brad Warnaar's horn concerto, conducted by the composer and performed by Andrew Bain, the principal horn player of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Their first public ticketed concert occurred on December 11, 2015, at the Montalban Theater in Hollywood, featuring Vivaldi's Four Seasons, performed by Los Angeles Philharmonic concertmaster Martin Chalifour. Other soloists appearing since this inaugural concert have included violinist Sarah Chang, pianist Molly Morkoski, clarinetist Eddie Daniels, and singers Cindy O'Connor, Tyler Duncan, Eleni Matos, Garth Neustadter, Franchesca Retford, and Holly Sedillos. Subsequent concerts have included Star Trek:The Ultimate Voyage Tour at the Pantages Theatre, conducted by Justin Freer; and the world premiere of the concert version of the documentary film Blackfish at the Montalban Theater, conducted by composer Jeff Beal. On July 24, 2016, the HCO commissioned and premiered seven new works by composers Michael Barry, Chad Cannon, Andy Forsberg, John Kaefer, Brian Langsbard, Susie Benchasil Seiter, and Andrew Morgan Smith.
The Chicago Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois, governed by the Chicago Philharmonic Society. Founded in 1988 by principals of the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago, it is a musician-governed, non-profit organization consisting of nearly 200 classical music performers from the Chicago area. Since 2013, the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor has been Scott Speck.
