ODALINE DE LA MARTINEZ - CUBA
BORN 31 OCTOBER
Source: Wikipedia and Composer Edition
Odaline de la Martinez (born 31 October 1949) is a Cuban-American composer and conductor, currently residing in the UK. She is the artistic director of Lontano, and was the first woman to conduct at the BBC Promenade Concerts (the Proms) in 1984. As well as frequent appearances as a guest conductor with leading orchestras throughout Great Britain, including all the BBC orchestras, she has conducted several leading ensembles around the world, including the Ensemble 2e2m in Paris; the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra; the Australian Youth Orchestra; the OFUNAM and the Camerata of the Americas in Mexico; and the Vancouver Chamber Orchestra. She is also known as a broadcaster for BBC Radio and Television and has recorded extensively for several labels.
Odaline de la Martinez was born in 1949 in Matanzas and grew up in Jovellanos, a cane-sugar manufacturing town in the same province. After the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961 her parents decided to send her and her sister to live with their aunt and uncle in the U.S.A.
In 1984 Martinez became the first woman to conduct at a BBC Promenade Concert at the Royal Albert Hall. In 1987 she was awarded the Villa Lobos medal from the Brazilian government for her championing of the music of Heitor Villa Lobos and other Brazilian composers. Her continuing commitment to showcase the music of Latin America for UK and European audiences led her in 1989 to co-direct with Eduardo Mata VIVA! - a festival of Latin-American music - at London's South Bank Centre. In 1990 she was made a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and in 1992 she founded LORELT (Lontano Records Limited) with the intent of promoting the work of living composers and women and Latin American composers from all periods. The label has since released over 30 CDs to critical acclaim.
In the autumn of 2006 together with Lontano Ensemble she founded the London Festival of American Music aiming to introduce UK audiences to a broader spectrum of works from contemporary American and US-based composers, and it has continued to be celebrated biennially since then. Several major works have received their UK premieres there, including works by John Harbison, Marjorie Merryman, Daniel Asia, Peter Child and Roberto Sierra.
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Canciones by Odaline de la Martinez
ANNA-LENA LAURIN - SWEDISH
BORN 31 OCTOBER
BORN 31 OCTOBER
Anna-Lena Laurin (born 1962) is a classical Swedish composer and pianist whose music often involves jazz improvisation in her orchestral works. She was commissioned to write Iphigenia (2009) for the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and was named Jazz Composer of the Year by Swedish Radio in 2013. She frequently writes music in which her partner, the trumpet soloist Anders Bergcrantz, is able to perform.
Born in Halmstad on 31 October 1962, Laurin began her career as a jazz pianist and singer. As a classical composer, she has worked with orchestras including the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and NorrlandsOperan's Symphony Orchestra. Commissioned by Camerata Nordica and Musik i Syd for the 100th anniversary of the city of Eslöv, her Concerto for flute, strings and harp (2009) was nominated one of Sweden's most successful compositions of 2011. In 2013, Swedish Radio offered her the Jazz Composer of the Year Award "for her ability to create a successful crossover between the jazz’s and classical music’s language and the courage to write music from her heart without leeking at prevailing musical trends".
Some of her selected works are: Persephone (2011), for symphony orchestra and hammond quartet, prem. 2012; Concerto in memoriam, (2012), for tr, str, prem. 2014; God is not mute, (2011), for Mzs, pf, lyrics Björn Ranelid, (lyrics are available in Swedish, German, English, French); Quest, (2013); and others.
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Ser Du by Anna Lena Laurin
Ser Du by Anna Lena Laurin
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