Odaline de la Martinez (born 31 October 1949) is a Cuban-American composer and conductor, currently residing in the UK. She is the artistic director of Lontano, a London-based contemporary music ensemble which she co-founded in 1976 with New Zealander flautist Ingrid Culliford, and was the first woman to conduct at the
BBC Promenade Concerts
The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert H ...
(the Proms) in 1984. As well as frequent appearances as a guest conductor with leading orchestras throughout Great Britain, including all the
BBC orchestras
BBC Orchestras and Singers refers collectively to a number of orchestras, choirs and other musical ensembles, maintained by the BBC.
Current operation
All of the BBC’s Orchestras and Singers record performances primarily for BBC Radio 3, with ...
, she has conducted several leading ensembles around the world, including the
Ensemble 2e2m The Ensemble 2e2m is a French musical ensemble specializing in the interpretation of works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
History
The Ensemble 2e2m was founded by Paul Méfano in 1972. 2e2m means ''études et expressions des modes ...
in Paris; the
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) is a symphony orchestra based in Wellington, New Zealand. The national orchestra of New Zealand, the NZSO is an autonomous Crown entity owned by the Government of New Zealand, per the New Zealand Symph ...
; the
Australian Youth Orchestra; the
OFUNAM
The Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico's Philharmonic Orchestra, also known as OFUNAM) was founded in 1936 and is the oldest symphonic group in Mexico City. It is based at Sala Nezahuacóyotl at the Unive ...
and the Camerata of the Americas in Mexico; and the Vancouver Chamber Orchestra. She is also known as a broadcaster for BBC Radio and Television and has recorded extensively for several labels.
Biography
Odaline de la Martinez was born in 1949 in
Matanzas and grew up in
Jovellanos
Jovellanos is a municipality and town in the Matanzas Province of Cuba.
Overview
The municipality is divided into the barrios of Asunción, Isabel, Realengo and San José.
It was founded in 1842 as Corral de la Bemba on the location of an old ...
, a cane-sugar manufacturing town in the same province. After the
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called ''Invasión de Playa Girón'' or ''Batalla de Playa Girón'' after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles, covertly fina ...
in 1961 her parents decided to send her and her sister to live with their aunt and uncle in the U.S.A. She enrolled at
Tulane University
Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...
, New Orleans, where she studied both music and mathematics, graduating summa cum laude in 1972 and receiving several awards upon graduation - a
Marshall Scholarship
The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious sc ...
from the British government, and a Danforth and Watson Fellowships - which allowed her to continue her studies at the
Royal Academy of Music, where she studied composition with
Paul Patterson and piano with Else Cross and where she founded Lontano Ensemble in 1976 with Ingrid Culliford. With Lontano she conducted the premiere of Judith Weir's The Consolations of Scholarship at the
University of Durham
Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...
in 1985 (subsequently recording it with Linda Hirst in 1989).
Martinez received her MMus in composition from the
University of Surrey in 1977, where she studied with
Reginald Smith Brindle
Reginald Smith Brindle (5 January 1917 – 9 September 2003) was a British composer and writer.
Early life
Smith Brindle was born in Cuerdon, Lancashire, to Robert and Jane Smith Brindle. He began learning the piano at the age of six, and lat ...
. This was followed by composer awards from the
American National Endowment for the Arts (1979) and a
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
(1980), supporting the composition of her first opera ''Sister Aimee: An American Legend'' (1984), with a libretto by John Whiting. ''Sister Aimme'' was premiered at Tulane University in 1984, followed by two other productions at the
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...
(1987) and in
Marin County College, California, in 1995.
It must have been in the nineteen eighties that Odaline de la Martinez had a weeknight show, I think it was a Thursday night, on BBC Radio Three. It might have been that Lontano played the modern classical music that she introduced. The show was engaging, an education in new music.
In 1984 Martinez became the first woman to conduct at a
BBC Promenade Concert at the
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...
. In 1987 she was awarded the Villa Lobos medal from the Brazilian government for her championing of the music of Heitor Villa Lobos and other Brazilian composers. Her continuing commitment to showcase the music of Latin America for UK and European audiences led her in 1989 to co-direct with
Eduardo Mata
Eduardo Mata (5 September 19425 January 1995) was a Mexican conductor and composer.
Career
Mata was born in Mexico City. He studied guitar privately for three years before enrolling in the National Conservatory of Music. From 1960 to 1963 he ...
VIVA! - a festival of Latin-American music - at London's South Bank Centre. In 1990 she was made a fellow of the
Royal Academy of Music and in 1992 she founded LORELT (Lontano Records Limited) with the intent of promoting the work of living composers and women and Latin American composers from all periods. The label has since released over 30 CDs to critical acclaim.
In the summer of 1994 Martinez conducted the BBC Proms premiere of
Ethel Smyth
Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (; 22 April 18588 May 1944) was an English composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and operas.
Smyth tended t ...
's ''
The Wreckers
The Wreckers were an American country music duo formed in 2005 by Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp, both of whom had solo recordings before the duo's foundation. In 2006, the duo released its debut album '' Stand Still, Look Pretty'', which produ ...
'', later released on CD by Conifer Records. A CD recording of Smyth's orchestral music for
Chandos Records followed, as did (2016) the first complete recording by Retrospect Opera of ''
The Boatswain's Mate
''The Boatswain's Mate'' is an opera in one act (but in two parts) written by British composer and suffragette Ethel Smyth in 1913–14 set to her own libretto, which was based on a story of the same name by W. W. Jacobs.Banfield, p. 509
It was S ...
''. Her forthcoming complete recording of Smyth's
''Fête Galante'', also by Retrospect Opera, was announced in August 2016.
[ Retrieved 25 September 2016.]
After a gap of almost 10 years, Martinez began composing again. First, music to a radio play commissioned by
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
(1998), followed by the ''Hansen Variations for Piano'' (1999) - commissioned by the Music Department of
Tulane University
Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...
. In 2008 she completed her second opera, ''Imoinda'', with a libretto by
Joan Anim-Addo
Joan Anim-Addo is a Grenadian-born academic, poet, playwright and publisher, who is Emeritus Professor of Caribbean Literature and Culture in the English and Creative Writing Department at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Academic career
Born ...
about slavery and the beginning of the Afro-Caribbean culture.
In the autumn of 2006 together with Lontano Ensemble she founded the ''London Festival of American Music'' aiming to introduce UK audiences to a broader spectrum of works from contemporary American and US-based composers, and it has continued to be celebrated biennially since then. Several major works have received their UK premieres there, including works by
John Harbison
John Harris Harbison (born December 20, 1938) is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works.
Life
John Harris Harbison was born on December 20, 1938, in Orange, New Jersey, to the historian Elmore Harris Harbi ...
,
Marjorie Merryman
Marjorie Merryman (born 1951) is an American composer, author, and music educator. She is a member of the composition faculty at the Manhattan School of Music since 2007, where she also served as Interim President, Provost and Senior Vice Presid ...
,
Daniel Asia
Daniel Asia (born June 27, 1953) is an American composer. He was born in Seattle, Washington (U.S. state), Washington, in the United States of America.
Biography
He received a B.A. degree from Hampshire College and a M.M. from the Yale School of ...
,
Peter Child
Peter Burlingham Child (born 6 May 1953) is an American composer, teacher, and musical analyst. He is Professor of Music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and was a composer in residence with the New England Philharmonic.
Educat ...
and
Roberto Sierra
Roberto Sierra (born 9 October 1953) is a Puerto Rican composer of contemporary classical music.
Life
Sierra was born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. He studied composition in Europe, notably with György Ligeti in Hamburg (1979–1982), Germany. Af ...
.
List of Works
OPERAS
''Sister Aimee: An American Legend'' (1978–1983) 0'
Mezzo Soprano, Tenor, Baritone, SATB Chorus, Strings, Brass Quintet
Premiered at Tulane University in April 1984 to celebrate the university's 150th anniversary. The UK premiere was held at the Royal College of Music in London in June 1987, and the work was also performed at Marin County College, California in 1995.
''Imoinda: A Story of Love and Slavery'' (2006–2018) '45'
Complete trilogy premiered in February–March 2019 at The Warehouse, London, as part of the 7th London Festival of American Music. The operas can be performed individually or as one.
Part I: Imoinda (2006) 5'
Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, 2 Tenors, Baritone, Mixed Voice ensemble SATB, Strings, 4 Percussionists
A video of selected scenes from Imoinda was filmed in 2015 with an Opera America Grant for Female Composers.
Part II: The Crossing (2013) 8' Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Soprano, Tenor, SATB Chorus, Strings, 3 Percussionists
Commissioned and premiered by Tulane University in 2014 with the Xavier University Choir and soloists of the Louisiana Philharmonic. The UK premiere was held in November 2014 at the 6th London Festival of American Music, performed by Eclectic Voices and Lontano Ensemble.
Part III: Plantation (2018) 7'
Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor, SATB Ensemble, Strings, 4 Percussionists
Premiered at the 7th London Festival of American Music in 2019 by the Lontano Ensemble, soloists and Festival vocal ensemble.
CHAMBER MUSIC
Litanies (1981)
Harp, Flute, String Trio          Â
Premiered by Lontano at the Wigmore Hall in London, 1981, and broadcast by the BBC. Premiered in the US by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. Also performed as part of the Irish Lontano tour in 1987.
Suite for Cello and Cor Anglais (1982)
Cello, Cor Anglais
Commissioned and premiered by the McGrath duo at St George's Hanover Square in London in June 1982.
Canciones (1983) Â Â Â Â
Voice, Percussion, Piano        Â
Commissioned and premiered by Janis Kelly and Simon Limbrick with Timothy Barrett at the Wigmore Hall in May 1983. Toured with Lontano for Eastern Arts (UK), in Canada, and broadcast by the CBC.
String Quartet (1984)
String Quartet
Commissioned by the Roth Quartet with funds from The Arts Council of Great Britain and premiered by them at the Purcell Room in January 1985.
Cantos de amor (1985) Â
Soprano, Violin, Viola, Cello, Piano    Â
Commissioned by Chester Festival and premiered by Domus in July 1985. Subsequently, performed by Lontano at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste Berlin and at St John's Smith Square in London. US premiere held at Merkin Hall in New York City in 1990.
CHORAL WORKS (A Capella)
Misa breve afrocubana (1975) Â Â Â Â Â Â
Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass                   Â
Revised version of an earlier work. Originally premiered by the Choir of Palo Verde High School in Tucson, Arizona in 1966. The revised version was performed by the Choir of the Royal Academy of Music, London, conducted by Michael Procter in 1975.
A las cinco de la tarde (1972/2018)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
3 Sopranos, 2 Altos, 2 Tenors, 3 Basses
Based on a poem of the same title by Federico GarcÃa Lorca. Performed by the Choir of the Royal Academy of Music, London, 1972, conducted by Michael Procter, and revised in 2018.
O Absalom (1977)Â Â
Countertenor, 2 Tenors, Baritone, Bass
Premiered by the Michael Procter Consort at the Seven Oaks Festival in May 1977.
Two American Madrigals (1978)Â Â
Choir
On two poems by Emily Dickinson. Commissioned for the Cork International Choral and Folk Dance Festival in 1978 by the Ruth Drady Memorial Trust, and premiered by the Oxford Schola Cantorum. Recorded by the BBC Singers for BBC Radio 3.
CHORAL WORKS (Choir and Ensemble)
Psalmos (1977) Â Â Â
Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass, Brass Quintet, Timpani, Electric Organ   Â
Premiered at Western Washington University in November 1977. UK premiere held at St John's Smith Square in London by the choir of the University of Surrey.
CHORAL WORKS (Choir and String Orchestra)
The Crossing (2013) 8'
Soprano, Tenor, SATB Chorus, Strings, 3 Percussionists
From the opera, Imoinda. Commissioned and premiered by Tulane University in 2014, with Xavier University Choir and soloists of the Louisiana Philharmonic. UK premiere held in November 2014 at the 6th London Festival of American Music, performed by Eclectic Voices and Lontano.
STRING ORCHESTRA
Five Russian Songs (1987)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Soprano, String Orchestra    Â
Commissioned by the Covent Garden Festival with funds from London Arts and premiered by the London Chamber Symphony in September 1987.
ORCHESTRA
Suite from 'Imoinda' (2018)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
2 fls, 2 obs, 2cls, 2 bsn, 2 hns, 4 percs, strings
Funded with a grant from the Cintas Foundation.
SOLOS & DUOS
Little Piece (1975) '
Solo flute  Â
Premiered by Judith Pearce at Dartington Summer School in 1976. Performed in Israel and broadcast in New Zealand by Ingrid Culliford.
EOS for Solo Organ (1976)Â Â
Organ, Assistant Â
Premiered by Susan Heath at St Bride's Church, London and performed at Coventry Cathedral.
After Sylvia (1976)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Soprano, Piano  Â
On poems by Sylvia Plath. Premiered at the ISME Festival in Montreaux, Switzerland. Broadcast by the BBC. Performed and broadcast in Romania and Belgrade, Yugoslavia. US Premiere held in 2018 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Also performed in 2019 at Florida International University, Miami, and by North/South Consonance at Christ & St Stephen's Church in New York City.
A Moment’s Madness (1977) Â
Flute, (Inside the) Piano
Premiered at Carnegie Recital Hall, New York, by Lyn McLarin and Jonathan Rutherford in November 1977. UK Premiere at the Purcell Room by Ingrid Culliford. Broadcast by Radio Beograd.
Improvisations (1977)
Solo Violin      Â
Premiered in October 1978 at the Istanbul Arts Festival. UK premiere at a SPNM concert in 1980 by Irvine Arditi.
Color Studies (1978)Â Â
Solo Piano
Commissioned by Eleanor Alberga with funds from the Arts Council of England and premiered by her at Southbank Centre's Purcell Room, London.
Asonancias (1982)
Solo Violin
Commissioned by Sophie Langdon and premiered by her at the Purcell Room in London. Broadcast by the BBC World Service and BBC Radio 3.
Hansen Variations (1999)
Solo Piano
Commissioned by the Music Department of Tulane University and premiered there by Daniel Weilbaecher Jr. that year.
ELECTRONIC WORKS
Hallucination (1975)
Electronic Tape
Premiered at the Salzburg Seminar for Contemporary American Music in April 1976.
Visions and Dreams (1977-78)
Electronic Tape
Premiered at the University of Hawaii and performed at the 1978 International Computer Music Conference of Chicago, and at various American universities.
Lamento (1979) Â
Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor, Bass (all amplified), Tape
Premiered by Electric Phoenix at St John's Smith Square in London in 1979, and performed in Holland and at the University of York.
Three Pieces for Percussion and Electronics (1980)
Percussion, Tape Delay
Commissioned and premiered by James Wood, with funds provided by the Eastern Arts Association, at the Wells-on-Sea Arts Centre, and performed again at the Purcell Room, London.
EARLY WORKS
Five Imagist Songs (1974)
Soprano, Clarinet, Piano   Â
Premiered at the Kelso Festival in Scotland by soprano, Sarah Mosely, and clarinetist, Rory Allam, with the composer at the piano.
Phasing (1975)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Chamber Orchestra, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Divided Strings
Premiered by the Manson Ensemble at the RAM. Also performed at the Zagreb Music Biennale and at the University of Surrey.
References
External links
Official website of Odaline de la MartÃnezLontano's Official WebsiteLorelt's Official Websitein the ''Kapralova Society Journal'', vol. 14, no. 2 (2016): 8–11.
Interview with Martinez at BBC 4's ''Woman's Hour''(01/10/2002)
An article on Odaline de la Martinez by Andrew Burnson ''The Musical Times'', Vol. 126, No. 1709 (July 1985), pp. 401+403-404
Retrospect Opera*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martinez, Odaline de la
Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music
Cuban composers
Cuban emigrants to the United States
American women classical composers
American classical composers
Fellows of the Royal Academy of Music
Living people
1949 births
Women conductors (music)
American expatriates in the United Kingdom
Tulane University alumni
Alumni of the University of Surrey
Marshall Scholars
21st-century American conductors (music)
21st-century American women musicians
21st-century American composers
20th-century American conductors (music)
20th-century American women musicians
20th-century American composers
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
20th-century women composers
21st-century women composers