As composer, conductor, and artistic curator, Odaline de la Martinez has brought energy, insight, and unbridled communicative power to every facet of a remarkable career. Born in Matanzas, Cuba in 1949, she studied music and mathematics in the USA before finding her voice as a composer in Britain. It was there, too, that, in 1976, she founded her new music ensemble, Lontano, launching a conducting career that would establish her as a champion of marginalized repertoire, whether by historical and living female composers, or the music of her native Latin America. Her reputation as a conductor, as well as an eloquent and enthusiastic communicator, grew swiftly, and in 1984 she became the first woman ever to conduct a full-length concert at the BBC Proms. Since then, de la Martinez’s work has ranged from pioneering recordings of the operas of Ethel Smyth (beginning with The Wreckers in 1994) to radio presentation and community projects. She has guest conducted symphony orchestras on four continents, and remains just as committed to Lontano. From 2006 she returned to composition, and her operatic trilogy, Imoinda, was premiered in London in 2019. “I don’t think you can change the world but you might be able to change a tiny little bit of the world”, she says. It’s hard, though, to think of an area of contemporary classical music where she hasn’t made a lasting—and positive—impact.