LOS ANGELES — For a conductor, the baton is an extension of their hand. It’s all about the weight, and Lina González-Granados knows exactly what she’s looking for.

“If it has good balance, my hands don’t get stiff,” she said, holding one of her favorites.

The baton may be light, but there is a certain weight to this moment. In stepping into the role of resident conductor for the LA Opera, González-Granados becomes the first Latin American woman to hold that title at a major U.S. opera company. And the opera company that calls the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion home is certainly major — the fourth largest in the United States.

“At this moment, it feels like a very important responsibility,” González-Granados said, standing on the balcony with the massive second floor chandeliers sparkling behind her. “An opportunity to remind everyone that we have still a long way to go in order to advance more people, especially women of ethnic minorities in the country.”

Born in Columbia, the 36-year-old fell in love with music early, playing the castanets, then small stringed instruments, then the piano. Without many female conductors to look up to, she made a point of searching for other women to inspire her, in classical music and beyond.

“Actresses, singers, politicians,” she explained. “Whoever brings you inspiration, then you translate that into your own music world.” She said she borrowed from these women the parts that suited her best, mixing them together to create someone new, a “unicorn,” as she called it. “And you aspire to be that one.”

In a way, González-Granados is a bit of a unicorn in a country where fewer than 15% of orchestral conductors are female and even fewer identify as Latino, according to data published in 2016 by the League of American Orchestras. “Women conductors are still rare,” it says in the report’s key findings, especially in high-status roles.

This has been an exciting year for González-Granados, who has conducted from coast to coast and throughout Latin America, and her arrival in Los Angeles has been one long crescendo. She made her first appearance at the Hollywood Bowl, conducting the LA Phil, an orchestra she described as “to die for.” It was her first time on that stage and actually her first visit to the iconic location.

“I was able to bring my dad from Colombia,” González-Granados recalled, “and to see that amount of people in an outdoor venue was just fantastic.”

Her tenure at LA Opera will last for three years. The position was never part of her plan, she said, and yet somehow is everything she dreamed it would be. And although she’s only had a few rehearsals with the orchestra, she has a good feeling about this new relationship.

“The chemistry was very positive,” she said. “The energy was electrifying, I want to say, and that is already, I don’t know, 70% of the battle.”

As for the other battle, the one for greater inclusivity, she praises the LA Opera as a team that “embraces values of real diversity and inclusion.”

“There is a place for everyone in this opera house because music belongs to all of us,” González-Granados insisted. “It’s not a privilege for a few. It’s a medium to communicate feelings, and a medium to express… I don’t know, human development.”

She loves the energy and multiculturalism of Los Angeles and just as she’s done throughout her young career, González-Granados hopes to spend the next few years broadening her repertoire and reaching out to every corner of the community.

“Even people who look like me that not necessarily come to the theater,” she explained, “and tell them that this place is available for them, that we welcome them with open arms.”

With her skills, her position and her passion, it’s hard not to see her as a woman capable of orchestrating great change with the wave of her hand.

"Lucia di Lammermoor" opens on Sept. 17 and runs through Oct. 9.