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.
