Jaslyn Robertson is a queer multidisciplinary composer and artistic researcher. Her work evolves out of ideas and research, collaboration and experimentation. For others, her work is both ‘theatrical and demanding’ (Limelight) and ‘evokes a kind of anxiety, a kind of otherness, and yet a joy in this as well, through her creative use of modular synthesis, unconventional tunings, and unusual sounds’ (The Sound Barrier).

Driven by the excitement of learning new artistic skills, Jaslyn works with video, technology, spatialised audio and experimental forms of notation to realise her creative concepts. Working closely with improvising performers, artists, writers and fashion designers helps her to expand her reach and perspective. The aim of her work is to form multisensory performances that raise questions and unfold into discussion on complex social issues. A current focus of her practice and artistic research, culminating in a PhD in Music at Monash University, is queering concepts of censorship. She is developing an opera that unveils creative possibilities in restricted social environments. Through her work, she seeks to contribute to a wider discussion about self-censorship within structures of power.

The highlights of her musical career include winning the Homophonic Composition Prize, having works performed at BIFEM, MONA FOMA and the Deutsche Oper Berlin for Klangwerstatt Festival, opening for Jon Rose at Rouse Hill Psychedelia, and performing electronics in Cat Hope’s Speechless. She is currently part of Speak Percussion’s Bespoke program and an alumni of the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Montreal Contemporary Music Lab, Toronto Creative Music Lab and the Australian Art Orchestra’s Creative Music Intensive. A 2023 exchange to the Hochschule für Musik und Theatre Hamburg expanded her presence in Germany and her multimedia composition skills, taking classes with Alexander Schubert. Composing for renowned performers including Ossicle Duo, Argonaut String Quartet, Kyla Matsuura-Miller, Tristram Williams, and members of Decibel New Music Ensemble, her music has been performed in festivals around the world.

Photo: Yunis Tmeizeh 2020

Excellence in Experimental Music 2020

APRA & AMC Art Music Awards (awarded to the music box project’s performance of shallow listening)

Homophonic Pride Prize 2021

3 Shades Black

Monash Animated Notation Ensemble Commissioning Prize 2020

Monash University

XYZ Prize for Innovation in Spoken Word Poetry

Arts Queensland (collaboration with poet Eloise Grills)

Classical Composition Prize 2015

Monash University

Rosenhöhe for violin, trombone and electronics

Performed at Darmstädter Ferienkurse 2023 by Myra Hinrichs and Vasily Ratmansky

Blackout Diary for electric guitar, projection and spatialised electronics 13.1

Performed at Hochschule für Musik und Theatre Hamburg by Danica Hobden

Shadow Aria for four performers and spatialised electronics 24.2

Performed at Hochschule für Musik und Theatre Hamburg by Monash Animated Notation Ensemble

Dream-state for solo violin

Performed at Homophonic Festival and Ensemble Offspring's The Mechanical Fiddle by Kyla Matsuura-Miller

A Landscape for spatialised electronics 24.2

Performed at RMIT SIAL Sound Studios

Performed at Melbourne Recital Centre by Ossicle Duo

Uprooting for Minimoog synthesizer

Darmstädter Ferienkurse 2021 (online public workshop)

Computer Virus videographic score for Monash Animated Notation Ensemble

Monash Day of Play (online premiere)

Crush electronic piece, commissioned by Fluxx Club

Fluxx Club Compilation Vol. 1

Erotic Thriller soundscape and spoken word collaboration with Eloise Grills

Melbourne Spoken Word (online premiere)

Ode to Tom Jones: First Horseman of the Apocalypse multimedia collaboration with Eloise Grills

The Lifted Brow: Digital Intimacies Issues (online premiere)

Shallow Listening for voice, theremin and ensemble

Performed at BIFEM 2019 by the music box project

How to regain your virginity in 12 steps a videographic score for 5-string cello

Performed at The Burrow by Nikki Edgar

Southern Bells for bass clarinet and double bass

Performed at Fleece 2017 by Patrick Lyons and Joel Hands-Otte

Woven Tracks for 14 instruments

Performed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as part of Klangwerkstatt 2016, and at the Konzerthaus Berlin in March 2017 by Landesjugendensemble Neue Musik Berlin

Aerobatics: 5 miniatures for string quartet

First performed by the Argonaut String Quartet at the Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music 2016

but to desire is my pleasure, for flute and guitar

Performed in Prato, Italy by Luciano Tristaino and Gisbert Watty

Pressure for double bass and electronics

Performed by Patrick Lyons at Tilde New Music Festival 2017

Galaxies: A Ship Full of Scientologists and Venus Express

Performed at Tilde New Music Festival 2016

Wandering for quartertone flugelhorn

Performed by Tristram Williams

Winner of the Monash University Composition Prize 2015