
Biography
Jaslyn Robertson is a Melbourne-based composer navigating an emerging career in music with advocacy for diversity in the arts.
An excitement for unusual forms of expression, alternate tuning systems and innovation in notation has drawn her to unique instruments including
the Theremin, double bell trombone, quartertone flugelhorn and analogue synths. Her practice is varied, with compositions ranging from multimedia
and animated notation to multichannel electronic works as well as solo and chamber ensemble pieces. She has composed for world-renowned performers
including ELISION’s Tristram Williams, the Argonaut String Quartet, Landesjugendensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Monash Animated Notation Ensemble, Ossicle
Duo and Sydney’s ‘the music box project’, who received APRA/AMC’s Art Music Award for Excellence in Experimental Music for their concert Shallow Listening
centred around Robertson’s piece. In 2021, she won the Homophonic Pride Prize to write for violinist Kyla Matsuura-Miller, and RMIT recently commissioned
her for a 24.2 multichannel work. Her music has received multiple performances in Germany, including at the Deutsche Oper as part of Klangwerkstatt Festival
für Neue Musik Berlin, as well as in Canada at Toronto Creative Music Lab. Locally, she has had pieces performed at the Bendigo International Festival for
Exploratory Music and Tilde New Music Festival. In 2020 she received the Monash Animated Notation Ensemble commissioning prize with an online premiere and a
commission for Ossicle duo supported by Creative Victoria and City of Melbourne. With poet Eloise Grills, Robertson won the national XYZ Prize for Innovation
in Spoken Word Poetry for a poetry and sound collaboration. She improvises with touch-sensitive analogue synthesisers and has performed at Make it Up Club and
Classical X Crazy Arms, and took an advanced professional development workshop at Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio. Jaslyn has presented workshops, papers and
seminars on the topic of diversity in music and started the Queer and Now interview series in CutCommon Magazine.
Photo: Yunis Tmeizeh 2020
Awards
- 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
Selected list of works
- Cut It for double bell trombone, percussion and electronics
- Ossicle Duo (postponed performance)
- 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