Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

Merinda Dias-Jayasinha (she/her) is a creative vocalist, improviser, and composer. With impressive vocal ability and versatility, her practice explores heartfelt and lyrical storytelling, genre-blurring compositions, and the melodic and textural potential of the voice. The Sri Lankan/Australian, Meanjin-born, Naarm-based musician explores her artistry through a number of ensembles and projects, and delights in collaboration, connection, and community.

The debut album of her co-lead trio Strong Cotton Socks, ‘Falling Towards You’ was released through ABC Music in March 2020. In 2018, she released ‘First Cycle’, the debut album of her voice/string quartet Meridians through MADE NOW MUSIC. Alongside her own projects, including her own contemporary jazz quartet, Dias-Jayasinha is a member of many ensembles, including as a member of Gian Slater's celebrated Invenio Singers.

A versatile artist and maker, Dias-Jayasinha experiments across improvised, jazz, contemporary classical, choral, and spoken word forms. In 2018, she was commissioned by the Brisbane Girls Grammar School Chamber Singers to compose a work for their gala, titled ‘With The Sea’. In 2020, she produced music for emerging cross-disciplinary artist Freya McGrath’s video series ‘The Receiver’, for the Dirty Laundry Collective - a multidisciplinary theatre collective. In late 2020, Dias-Jayasinha took part in the Australian Art Orchestra’s Creative Music Intensive. In 2021, she performed at MidsummaFestival as part of That Which Was Once Familiar by Zoë Bastin, and was selected to participate in Let’s Take Over 2022, facilitated by Darebin Arts.

Graduating from the Queensland Conservatorium, Dias-Jayasinha studied with Dr. Irene Bartlett and renowned jazz vocalist Kristin Berardi. Dias-Jayasinha has performed at MPavillion, Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival, Brisbane International Jazz Festival, and at The JazzLab, Brisbane Jazz Club, Foundry616, and the old Bennetts Lane Jazz Club.

Dias-Jayasinha is cementing her place in Australia’s emerging generation of creative practitioners. 

Further information for this event is available online at the event's website

Featured artists

• Jazz/improvisation by Merinda Dias-Jayasinha
• Jazz/improvisation by Niran Dasika
• Jazz/improvisation by Matt Hoyne
• Jazz/improvisation by Helen Svoboda