The CAMA Women’s Board continued to sponsor Preview Lectures, which were very well attended. A 1981|82 Preview Lecture schedule features lectures by Dr. Jerry Blackstone, Dr. 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, […]
A message from CAMA President Arthur Gaudi in a 1971|72 Annual Report gives “special mention to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and [music director] Zubin Mehta” as “the mainstay of our seasons.” Indeed, from 1970 to 1979 the Los Angeles Philharmonic visited Santa Barbara 47 times, six times in the 1975|76 season alone! Women’s Board Preview […]
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 […]
The CAMA Women’s Board was founded in 1951 with Katherine Gray as its first Chairman. Notes from Mrs. Lewis Motler (“Dot”) Smith state that in 1951|52, 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. […]
The Music Branch (1921–1940) of the Community Arts Association reorganized and incorporated under its present name, Community Arts Music Association of Santa Barbara, Inc. (CAMA), in 1940. 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 […]
A 1930 chart issued by CAA lists a gross turnover of $200,000, with net capital assets of $225,000, the equivalent of about $2.9 million in purchasing power today (2009). Thirty employees worked for CAA at that time. The Association provided “education, entertainment and service for 25,000 persons through 150,000 contacts.” (CAMA archives) The Great Depression […]
Introduction 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 intention was to present the finest in musical performances, including the new Los Angeles Philharmonic, founded by philanthropist William Andrews […]