Martinez, Odaline de la (1949– )

Cuban-born US conductor and composer. An advocate of music by women composers, she conducted The Wreckers by Ethel Smyth at the 1994 London Promenade Concerts. Her own music includes the opera Sister Amiée 1978–83.

She emigrated to the USA in 1961 and studied at Tulane University 1968–72; she then studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London, 1972–76, and with Reginald Smith-Brindle at Surrey University. In 1976 she founded Lontano, for the performance of contemporary music. She conducted the premiere of Goldschmidt's opera Beatrice Cenci (concert) in 1988 and the following year a series of Latin American music at the South Bank, London.