CAMA's Mark Trueblood Will Retire

Mark E. Trueblood, who has guided Community Arts Music Association (CAMA) of Santa Barbara to new programmatic heights over the course of his 27-year tenure as executive director and later president, will retire once the current concert season concludes. Elizabeth Alvarez, CAMA’s director of development, will succeed him as managing director of the venerable classical music presenting organization.

“Over the past nearly three decades, I have been immensely proud to witness and contribute to the growth and impact of CAMA, and feel incredibly fortunate to have worked with the exceptional staff and Board of this organization,” said Mr. Trueblood. “It has been extremely rewarding to present many of the world’s greatest orchestras, soloists, and chamber ensembles in concerts that have truly enriched the cultural life of this community, as CAMA has been doing so well for the past 106 seasons! I don't have an exact count, but together we’ve put on something on the order of 250 immensely enjoyable concerts at the Arlington, Granada, and Lobero theatres over these past years.”

“Mark Trueblood has served Santa Barbara well for the better part of three decades with inspiring leadership to make possible continual visits by the world’s great orchestras and ensembles. His legacy as a cultural leader will be well remembered by all of those like me who had the pleasure to work with him,” said R. Douglas Sheldon, a former senior executive at Columbia Artists Management who now serves as managing partner at Sheldon Artists LLC.

Named executive director of CAMA in 1998, Mr. Trueblood ably continued the organization’s tradition of presenting internationally renowned orchestras and soloists for the enjoyment of local audiences. He worked with CAMA Program Director Stephen Cloud to engage great European orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, the Warsaw and Czech Philharmonics, and all the major orchestras from London, as well as major American ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which CAMA has presented each year since their mutual founding more than a century ago. He also worked to bring the acclaimed Masterseries recital program founded in the early 1980s by Mr. Cloud under CAMA’s wing with funding from local arts patron Robert Light’s Esperia Foundation.

Mr. Trueblood was instrumental in planning special events for CAMA’s centennial 2018-19 season, which was capped in May 2019 with a “100th Birthday Bash” at the Santa Barbara Courthouse Sunken Garden. The free community celebration featured local ensembles and youth performers; area restaurants, caterers, and wineries also took part. The following season, CAMA celebrated its longstanding relationship with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a Gala 100th Anniversary Concert featuring the renowned orchestra under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel on March 6 – 100 years to the day from the LA Phil’s first performance in Santa Barbara on March 6, 1920.  

Early in his tenure, Mr. Trueblood worked with CAMA’s Board of Directors to establish an endowment fund, nurturing it over the ensuing decades to ensure the organization’s fiscal stability. The fund proved invaluable during the pandemic, sustaining CAMA throughout the approximately 18 months the organization was unable to present concerts – the longest hiatus in its history.

Beyond concerts, Mr. Trueblood has significantly expanded CAMA’s educational and community outreach efforts. With expert guidance from musicologist Dr. David Malvinni, CAMA launched Music Matters, a music appreciation curriculum for local elementary schools, in the mid-2000s. Now in its second decade, the program sends trained volunteer docents into more than a dozen schools (grades 4–6) to introduce students to classical, jazz, and folk music traditions.

CAMA also has expanded opportunities for students and young adults to attend live performances during Mr. Trueblood’s tenure. The Ticket Program for Young Student Musicians provides free or subsidized tickets for some 30 high school students to attend each major CAMA concert. In the early 2000s, Mr. Trueblood worked with then-CAMA Board Chair Herbert Kendall and former UCSB Vice Chancellor Dr. Edward Birch to found CAMA’s College and University Program, which each year brings 50-100 college students to CAMA’s International Series concerts at The Granada Theatre.

In recent seasons, Mr. Trueblood and CAMA have sought to broaden diversity and access in classical music programming. In 2023-24, the organization presented a performance by Detroit’s Sphinx Virtuosi, a dynamic self-conducted ensemble dedicated to showcasing the talents of underrepresented classical musicians. Earlier this month, CAMA presented a performance by the acclaimed Chineke! Orchestra, the pioneering, London-based ensemble similarly dedicated to championing accomplished classical musicians and composers from underrepresented communities.

“I have a unique perspective of Mark’s tenure, as I was working in the CAMA office as part-time subscriber service and office support staff from May of 1995 until he was hired. The radical change in a short amount of time was evidence of his vision for taking CAMA from a part-time operation to a full-time one,” said Board Chair Deborah Bertling. “As a Board member since 2002, I’ve seen how Mark’s quiet, yet focused guidance has led this organization into the 21st century. He has a deep appreciation for and knowledge of the history of this organization while keeping pace with what is current. He has served this organization so well! We can’t thank him enough!”

Mr. Trueblood says his achievements are a function of the steadfast support he has received from the CAMA Board of Directors, longtime staff members Justin-Rizzo Weaver, Elizabeth Alvarez, and Michael Below, and his wife Beatrice Appay.

“Without their dedication, expertise, and initiative, I could never have enjoyed the success we have achieved together,” he said. “CAMA is a team effort, more than a century in development, for the benefit of this unique and arts-loving community of Santa Barbara.”

CAMA’s 2024-25 concert season will conclude with an appearance by piano master Garrick Ohlsson at the Lobero Theatre on May 21, following a performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen and featuring celebrated French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard on May 9 at The Granada Theatre.