Odaline de la Martinez, born on October 31, 1949, in Matanzas, Cuba, is a Cuban-American conductor and composer. She left Cuba after the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961 to live with her aunt and uncle in the United States and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Tulane University in 1972. De la Martinez graduated summa cum laude and received several awards upon graduation, including a Marshall Scholarship from the British government and a Danforth and Watson Fellowships, which allowed her to continue her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London where she studied composition with Paul Patterson and piano with Else Cross. In 1984, she became the first woman to conduct at a BBC Promenade Concert at the Royal Albert Hall. She has directed numerous orchestras worldwide, including VIVA!, a festival of Latin-American music at London's South Bank Centre with her co-director Eduardo Mata in 1989. One of her notable works is the three-part opera Imoinda (2006-2018).
