Music in her blood
Pic courtesy : Catherine Menezes
Cathy Menezes was born in Colombo, and raised within a strong musical family. She first began learning music at the early age of four; her first great tutor was her grandfather ‘Papa Menezes.’ She was classically trained, but at the age of 10 she began leaning toward contemporary music.
She completed her education in Classical Music as she knew it was her grandfather’s wish and focused on a new chapter of her music, playing and singing standards with her father Tom Menezes and her Aunt Helen Lucas. As she progressed in music she began to perform with them and soon followed to play with popular musicians in Sri Lanka namely, ‘Mignonne and the Jetliners’ and ‘Amazing Grace’.
She was 18 years when she started touring Europe and Hong Kong with Amazing Grace and The Jetliners. She eventually settled down in Melbourne with her family and decided to further pursue her education in music at the Victorian College of Arts (Melbourne University) where she began to find her inner soul in music. She was presented the 2012 Award for Creative Performance and Improvisation. She spent five years completing her Bachelor’s Degree with Honours. It was there that she also found her new skills in composing music and lyrics.
When asked about moving away from Sri Lanka and performing overseas she said, “It was an amazing musical journey for me. It was hard, having to work 6 nights for 6 hours, then travelling to another town after two weeks and starting the same routine again. When you’re young, your body can absorb the touring. I had some great colleagues who still keep in touch although we are continents away. But the positive note was that we had the opportunity to listen to live performances of international artists and learn from them. Yes it would have been different, completely different if I were making music in Sri Lanka,” Cathy says via an email interview.
Cathy released her debut Album, “A Dream”, in early December 2015 and is currently working on a new one titled “Break-Away” which will be released early in 2017. Furthermore, Cathy has also completed writing her third album which is to be recorded in LA with the 2014 Grammy Award winner Hussain Jiffry, Russell Ferrante, and Oscar Seaton in early 2018. “The two albums do vary in music styles, sophistication with elements of complex rhythmic patterns, R&B feel, and Latin Funk,” she said.
Learn more about Cathy at cathymenezes.com.au