Chachi – or Odaline de la Martinez in full – is a woman of many talents. The Cuban-born, musical polymath, was the first female composer to conduct at the Proms, in 1984. An energetic promoter of women composers and Latin American music, she is conducting at the 9^th London Festival of American Music at the Warehouse in London, which takes place between November 11th and 15th.

Included in the programme:  the music of Jewish female composers, who fled Nazi Germany to set up life in Latin America and the USA. The festival coincides with Odaline’s seventy-fifth birthday. ArtMuseLondon went to find out about her.

Chachi, where did you study music and when?

I left Cuba at the age of 11 and went to live in Tucson, Arizona. I entered Tulane University in New Orleans on a Mathematics scholarship and I took music courses which I was enthralled by and changed to music.   From there, I got a Marshall Scholarship to the Royal Academy to study composition with Paul Patterson and piano with Elsa Crosse, who was an emigrée from Nazi Germany who had studied with Webern.   Through Paul, I became very keen on contemporary music and joined a class led by John Carewe who also taught Simon Rattle.  At this point I decided to form my own ensemble Lontano with flautist Ingrid Culliford.   While we were doing concerts at the RAM, a producer from the BBC came to hear us as we were championing the music of George Crumb which was little known in the UK and the rest is history.

Did you always want to be a conductor? 

Ever since I was a little girl.  I won several composition competitions while I was in High School in Arizona.   I wasn’t going to give up on these dreams, even when people told me women don’t conduct.   I was determined.   Having created Lontano, I felt that playing the piano wasn’t enough – it wasn’t all of me – it was only part of me – and John Carewe encouraged me to pick up the baton.   My career took off as a conductor – starting off with the BBC Ulster Orchestra.   

After that, I contacted the Proms suggesting a programme of Schoenberg and Hugh Wood which we did in 1984.  We did further Proms – Villa-Lobos etc – and without realising it, I was discriminating against women composers.  In 1994, I conducted a modern performance of Ethel Smyth’s opera The Wreckers and in a way it opened the door to performing many more women composers. When I saw the light, that changed everything for Lontano – it became one of our raison d’etre – to promote the music of female composers and the composers of Latin America.   

Which came first the conducting or the composing?

Composing came first.   But my conducting career took off, so I had to give myself time off composing to pursue that career first, forming Lorelt, my record label, and establishing a biennial festival of American music.   

Did being female hinder your career in music at any one time?

Yes and no.   Yes, in that the chances available now to women conductors were not like that in my day, in particular with the more established orchestras.   Now it has changed greatly.   No, because I was different, there was a lot of curiosity about me especially after I became the first woman conductor to appear at the Proms.   It also allowed me to shape Lontano and the record label Lorelt to promote the works and composers I believed in. 

Where did this idea of conducting female émigrées come from for this year’s London Festival of American Music at the Warehouse? 

I wanted to organise a concert which made a connection between various emigree composers Ruth Schontal and Ursula Mamlok who both fled Nazi Germany to South America.  Previously I featured the music of Ruth Schontal at the Trailblazer Festival I curated for Juilliard in January 2020 – I had heard the name of Ursula Mamlok before and last year, I went to Berlin and I contacted Bettina Brandt from the Mamlok Foundation –   she offered me CDs and recordings.  

Mamlok was born in Berlin in 1923 but escaped to Ecuador in 1939 and from there to New York to continue her studies and build a life.   Later in 2006 she returned to Berlin where she has been hailed as a master composer.   Then I discovered that Mamlok had taught the Cuban-born composer Tania Leon and Alba Potes, both emigrées from Latin America – so suddenly I had a wonderful programme of these four fascinating female composers.  As an aside, Schontal also taught Lady Gaga.   

What is your greatest achievement do you think?

My opera ‘Opera Imoinda’ and my record label, Lorelt records.  30 years ago, we began a movement that now everyone is exploring – the music of Latin American composers and female composers.  It’s finally happened.  

When are you the happiest?

I am a happy person.   When I am annoyed, I let it out.  I get depressed probably one day a year, if that.   

KH

The 9^th London Festival of American Music takes place at the Warehouse in London, 11-15th November 2024 https://www.lontano.co.uk/