The orchestra was founded in 1979 by Keith Clark, a former student and assistant conductor of Roger Wagner at the Los Angeles Master Chorale and principal guest conductor of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, in his Fullerton, California home's kitchen with a grant of $2,000 and some phone calls to local musicians. The musicians whom Clark called were mainly from Southern California's deep base of professional freelance musicians who performed in the area's movie studios, universities, and other regional performing arts organizations; as a result, many of these musicians were former concertmasters, associate concertmasters, and principal players with prominent orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. Clark became the orchestra's first Music Director and the first orchestra personnel manager was Robert F "Peeps" Peterson.