Astrid Jorgensen is an Australian vocalist, conductor and composer. She is the founder and director of Pub Choir''.''

Early life

Jorgensen was born in

Hamilton, New Zealand Hamilton (, ) is an inland city in the North Island of New Zealand. Located on the banks of the Waikato River, it is the seat and most populous city of the Waikato, Waikato region. With a territorial population of , it is the country's List of c ...

, and emigrated to

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, Australia, in 1998. She attended Lourdes Hill College in Brisbane, graduating in 2006 as college captain. In school she had lessons in piano, violin, and voice. She studied a Bachelor of Arts (Music) and a Graduate Diploma of Education at the

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

, and a Master of Music Studies (Vocal Performance) at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music. While at the

, Jorgensen trained in the Kodály method.

Career

In 2011 Jorgensen formed the band ''Astrid & the Asteroids''. The group was awarded the Billy Thorpe Scholarship at the 2012

Queensland Music Awards The Queensland Music Awards (commonly known as QMA and known as the Q Song Awards from 2006 to 2010) are annual awards celebrating Queensland's emerging artists. They commenced in 2006. Each year, the QMA Song of the Year is immortalised in ...

, and later disbanded in 2014. After graduating from university she worked as a high school music and vocal teacher in Brisbane and Townsville and conducted several community choirs. In 2017 Jorgensen founded Pub Choir in West End, Brisbane. At each Pub Choir event, Jorgensen arranges a popular song and teaches it to a non-trained audience in three-part harmony, concluding with a performance which is filmed and shared on social media. Jorgensen utilises a unique form of musical notation incorporating colour-coded contoured text and comedic visual cues to teach at Pub Choir, so that musical literacy is not required for audience participation. Each show is improvised, with Jorgensen responding to the audience's progress in real-time. Pub Choir gained international attention in November 2017 when their rendition of

Zombie A zombie (Haitian French: ; ; Kikongo: ''zumbi'') is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies appear in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folkl ...

The Cranberries The Cranberries were an Irish rock music, rock band formed in Limerick in 1989. The band was composed of lead singer and guitarist Dolores O'Riordan, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan (Noel's brother), and drummer Fergal Lawler. O'Riord ...

went viral online. In 2018 Jorgensen was the resident choral arranger and conductor for

Neil Finn Neil Mullane Finn (born 27 May 1958) is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known for being a principal member of Split Enz and for being the lead singer of Crowded House. He was also a member of Fleetwood Mac from 2018 ...

’s ''Out of Silence'' show at HOTA. She arranged the songs ''Sisters'' and ''Ready or Not'' on the

Spinifex Gum Spinifex Gum is an Australian musical collective based in Cairns, a collaboration between the Indigenous ensemble the Marliya Choir, Felix Riebl and Ollie McGill of the Melbourne band The Cat Empire, Lyn Williams, and Deborah Brown. The perfor ...

album ''Sisters'' with

Felix Riebl Felix Riebl (born 1 May 1981) is a singer, songwriter, and composer based in Melbourne. He is the co-founder, band leader and principal songwriter of the internationally acclaimed band The Cat Empire, who have made multi-platinum albums, and are ...

and

Ollie McGill Oliver James McGill (born 2 November 1981) is an Australian musician who is the keyboard player and backing vocalist for The Cat Empire. He composed "Dumb Ways to Die" for Metro Trains Melbourne. McGill is also a member of several other bands, ...

from ''

The Cat Empire The Cat Empire are an Australian jazz/funk band, formed in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1999. For most of the band's duration, the core members were Felix Riebl (lead vocals, percussion), Harry James Angus (trumpet, vocals), Will Hull-Brown (drums), ...

''. She was a featured guest in Tim Rogers' ''Liquid Nights in Bohemia Heights'' shows in 2019. In March 2020, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and the subsequent cancellation of planned Pub Choir events, Jorgensen launched "Couch Choir". She arranged and uploaded three vocal harmonies of the song

(They Long To Be) Close To You "(They Long to Be) Close to You" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David with sections of the early version written by Cathy Steeves. The best-known version is that recorded by American duo the Carpenters for their second studio album ' ...

The Carpenters The Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo consisting of siblings Karen Carpenter, Karen (1950–1983) and Richard Carpenter (musician), Richard Carpenter (born 1946). They produced a distinctive soft musical style, combining ...

to social media, inviting anybody to learn a part, film themselves singing it, and send it back for inclusion in a final video. There were over 1000 submissions from 18 different countries, and the project was featured on

Australian Story ''Australian Story'' is a national weekly current affairs and documentary style television series which is broadcast on ABC Television (Australian TV network), ABC Television. It is produced specifically by the ABC News and Current Affairs, AB ...

. The final video was also shared by Richard Carpenter. Jorgensen continued to host free "Couch Choir" events throughout the pandemic, attracting tens of thousands of participants from over 50 countries. Jorgensen has also worked as a producer for ABC Radio Brisbane, and has performed as a keyboardist in Australian indie rock band ''

The Grates The Grates were an Australian indie rock band, which formed in Brisbane, Queensland in 2002 with Patience Hodgson on lead vocals, John Patterson on guitars and backing vocals and Alana Skyring on drums. Their first two albums, '' Gravity Won't ...

''. In 2021 Jorgensen was a consultant executive producer for the television special ''Australia's Biggest Singalong!'', which was broadcast live on SBS from

Sydney Town Hall The Sydney Town Hall is a late 19th-century heritage-listed town hall building in the city of Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales, Australia, housing the chambers of the Lord Mayor of Sydney, council offices, and venues for meetings and ...

. The two-hour special was co-created by Pub Choir in collaboration with Artemis Media and SBS and was hosted by

Julia Zemiro Julia Zemiro () (born 14 April 1967) is a French-born Australian television presenter, radio host, actress, singer, writer and comedian. She is best known as the host of the music quiz and live performance show ''RocKwiz''. Zemiro is a fluent E ...

and

Miranda Tapsell Miranda Tapsell (born 11 December 1987) is a Larrakia Aboriginal Australian actress of both stage and screen, best known for her role as Cynthia in the Wayne Blair film '' The Sapphires'' and her 2015 performance as Martha Tennant in the Nine ...

. Throughout the interactive special, Jorgensen taught the live audience and home viewers a vocal arrangement of " Throw Your Arms Around Me" by

Hunters & Collectors Hunters & Collectors are an Australian rock band from Melbourne, formed in 1981. Fronted by founding member, singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Seymour, the band's other mainstays are John Archer on bass guitar and Doug Falconer on drums an ...

in real-time. In 2025 she was a contestant on

Americas Got Talent ''America's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated as ''AGT'') is an American talent show competition, and is part of the global Got Talent, ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. The program is produced by Fremantle (company), Fremantle ...

(series 29 episode 4) where she had the entire audience singing Toto's song "Africa"

Recognition

Jorgensen was awarded the 2019 Queensland Community Foundation Emerging Philanthropist of the Year as a result of her charitable work with Pub Choir. She was also a 2020 Queensland

Young Australian of The Year The Australian of the Year is a national award conferred on an Australian citizen by the National Australia Day Council, a not-for-profit Australian Government-owned social enterprise. Similar awards are also conferred at the state and territor ...

nominee. In 2021 she was named one of the 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australians by the Asian-Australian Leadership Summit. In the King’s Birthday Honours on 12 June 2023, Jorgensen was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jorgensen, Astrid Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Australian choral conductors Australian radio producers University of Queensland alumni New Zealand emigrants to Australia Musicians from Hamilton, New Zealand Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia