Celebrating 250 years of diversity: Odaline de la Martinez's London Festival of American Music returns for its 10th edition

Odaline de la Martinez's London Festival of American Music returns for its 10th edition from 9 to 13 November 2026 at The Warehouse. Celebrating 250 years of diversity, the Festival presents works by over 30 composers across five nights of concerts with three world premieres and 20 UK premieres. Over half the composers represented are women.

The Festival opens with Singapore-born conductor Tianhui Ng directing Lontano Ensemble in Latinos in America, a programme of works by Puerto Rican, Mexican American and Cuban American composers, many receiving their UK or world premieres. The next evening, Odaline de la Martinez conducts Lontano in Percussion!! featuring two works by Jewish émigrée Ursula Mamlok alongside three newly commissioned world premieres from Neva Derewetzky, Charles Shadle and Daniel Thomas Davis.

Soprano Roberta Philip joins forces with pianist Valentina Wang for African American art song from the classics of Florence Price, Undine Smith Moore, Margaret Bonds and William Grant Still to George Walker, Moses Hogan, and Hall Johnson — alongside the world of Britney Boykin's Moments in Sonder. Odaline de la Martinez and Lontano return with Solos, Duos and More, featuring Daniel Asia’s Pine’s Last Poems, Arlene Sierra’s A Young Mind in Old Bees, as well as works by Alfred Lerdahl, Barbara Jazwinski, Elena Ruehr, Augusta Reed Thomas, and Aaron Einbond. 

The festival concludes with Suzi Digby conducting VOCE Chamber Choir in choral works b y American composers including Eric Whitacre, Caroline Shaw, Frank Ticheli, Nico Muhly, Reena Esmail, Michael Gordon, Nick Strimple, Jake Runestad, Dolly Parton and Odaline de la Martinez.

Full details from the Lontano website.