Camerata Salzburg was founded in 1952 by teachers and students of the Salzburg Mozarteum. The ensemble was able to quickly establish itself, with its Mozart Matinees soon becoming the cynosure of the Salzburg Festival. The founding father of the Camerata was conductor, music pedagogue, and musicologist Bernhard Paumgartner who had also been co-founder of the Salzburg Festival, and later went on to be its president. When founding the Camerata, Paumgartner sought out to preserve as well as to revive the ethos of classical and classicistic music.