Cuban-born composer Odaline de la Martínez (b. 1949) has some wonderful milestones coming up. First is the world premiere of her new work, Three Afro Cuban Poems, on 28 September; on 2 October, the University of Illinois will put on a performance of her Four Afro Cuban Poems for mezzo and string quartet, next, on 13 October, is a performance in New York at Opera America of a selection of arias and duets from her opera Imoinda: A Story of Love and Slavery sponsored by the American League of Composers/ISCM; then follows her 75th birthday on Halloween, to be celebrated at the University of Surrey in Guildford, UK. The 9th London Festival of American Music, 11-15 November, will be put on at The Warehouse, London, and finally, on 1 December is the world premiere of her piano work Studies in Rhythm, at the Barbican. It’s an amazing accomplishment in just 3 months.
Odaline de la Martínez
Three Afro Cuban Poems sets the poetry of Nicolás Guillén (1902–1989), a Cuban poet, journalist, and activist. In 1963, he was the first winner of Cuba’s National Prize for Literature. He is considered the national poet of Cuba. De la Martínez uses poems from Guillén’s 1930 collection, Motivos de Son, a work highly influenced by the American poet Langston Hughes. One of Guillén’s strengths was bringing out not the Spanish of his native Cuba, but the Afro-Cuban language of the country. He was the first to write in the language and his poems pick up on the language’s musical side. De la Martínez first sets ‘Sigue’ (Keep Going), where one man warns another to just keep moving if he sees a certain woman – she’s ‘mala, mala’ (bad, bad). The second piece, ‘Songoro Cosongo’, has few words in it, but many rhythmic phonemes (try saying the title to yourself and you’ll quickly discover the rhythm). The last piece is ‘Canto Negro’ (Black Song), which also is built around rhythmic phonemes.
De la Martínez: Songoro Cosongo
For the London Festival of American Music, it should be appreciated that this music of the USA but showing its many international influences. The concerts, held each night from 11 to 15 November, are set around topics: Marshalls in the Arts (referring to the Marshall Scholars), Female Emigrées, Trios and More, Other Important Voices, and Eclectic Voices. Each concert includes UK or world premieres and the whole promises to be a significant festival.
Some of the composers, such as Ursula Mamlock (1923–2016) and Ruth Schonthal (1924–2006) on the second concert, were German emigées in the 1930s whose families fled to Ecuador (Mamlock) and Stockholm / Moscow / Japan / Mexico City (Schonthal) and then who ended up studying music in the US, the first in New York, and the second in New Haven, Connecticut.
Ursula Mamlock
Mamlock studied at the Mannes School of Music with George Szell.
Ruth Schonthal
At a concert in Mexico City where her First Piano Concerto was given its premiere, Schonthal’s music attracted the attention of Paul Hindemith, who arranged for her to study with him at Yale University.
In addition to music by composers who may have fallen off the musical map, music by composers such as the winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Music, Jennifer Higdon, and winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Music, Tania León, will also be performed, both with works that will be UK premieres. New York composers such as Charles Ives, Steve Reich, and Fred Lerdahl are also on the programme. With over half the programme devoted to music by women composers, it will be a festival of discovery for many attendees.
Fred Lerdahl
One of Martínez’ other projects, now celebrating its 32nd birthday, is her record label Lorelt (Lontano Records Ltd). The label’s emphasis on contemporary music from the 20th and 21st century, Latin American classical music, and women composers of all periods are just the beginning of the trails the label has explored.
In her programming and in her own music, Martínez has been exploring the Afro-Cuban language she grew up with (her parents sent her out of Cuba in 1961 when she was 11) both in Cuba and in her eventual family home in New Orleans. Her setting of Guillén’s Afro-Cuban poems is one aspect of this interest as is her music based on the rhythm of the language. The work will receive its London premiere on 15 November at her Festival.
Celebrate the work of a ground-breaking musician: a female conductor in a world where they’re rare, the first woman conductor at the BBC Proms (1984), artistic director of the Lontano Ensemble, an opera composer whose work centred on the beginning of Afro-Caribbean culture in the 17th century, and an all-over original. Her goal in life has been to make a little difference and she’s certainly accomplishing that. Happy 75th!
For information on the festival: https://www.lontano.co.uk/
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