The academy annually enrolls 136 pre-professional musicians in their late teens and early 20s, who receive merit-based full scholarships to workshops led by famous composers, conductors, and artists.

[6] The eight-week summer music festival consists of concerts and operas,[5] as well as public master classes with famous musicians.

[8] In addition to Lotte Lehmann, founders of the academy were conductor Otto Klemperer, violinist Roman Totenberg, harpsichordist Rosalyn Tureck, baritone John Charles Thomas and composers Ernest Bloch, Darius Milhaud, Roy Harris and Arnold Schoenberg, who served as the academy's first composer in residence.

[9] Among the first scholarship funders were singer-actors Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, violinist Jascha Heifetz and movie producer Darryl F.

[10] The academy first hosted its summer sessions at Cate School in Carpinteria, before starting to relocate to a 10 acre (c. 4 hectare) property in Montecito in 1951.

[10] In 1954 the staff included, besides Lehmann,internationally known musicians such as pianist György Sándor, soprano Eleanor Steber, violinist Sascha Jacobsen, and the cellist Gábor Rejtő.

[13] The academy was initially administered by its board of directors, before the arts administrator, musicologist and writer Robert William Holmes[14] became its first president from 1988 till 1993.

[21] In 2018, the academy launched a four-year partnership with the London Symphony Orchestra with music director Simon Rattle,[24] and a free after school choral program called Sing!