Astrid Jorgensen


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, and emigrated to Brisbane, Australia, in 1998.
She studied a Bachelor of Arts and a Graduate Diploma of Education at the University of Queensland, and a Master of Music Studies at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music.

Career

In 2011 Jorgensen formed the band Astrid & the Asteroids. The group was awarded the Billy Thorpe Scholarship at the 2012 Queensland Music Awards, and later disbanded in 2014.
In 2017 Jorgensen founded Pub Choir in West End, Brisbane, with friend Megan Bartholomew. 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. Pub Choir gained international attention in November 2017 when their rendition of Zombie by The Cranberries went viral on the internet
In 2018 Jorgensen was the resident choral arranger and conductor for Neil Finn’s Out of Silence show at HOTA. She arranged the songs Sisters and Ready or Not on the Spinifex Gum album Sisters with Felix Riebl and Ollie McGill from The Cat Empire. 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 and the subsequent cancellation of planned Pub Choir events, Jorgensen launched "Couch Choir". She arranged and uploaded three vocal harmonies of the song Close To You by The Carpenters 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. The final video was also shared by Richard Carpenter.
Jorgensen also works as a producer for ABC Brisbane Local Radio, and has performed as a keyboardist in indie rock band The Grates.

Recognition

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