Tora Augestad


Tora Karen Elisabeth Augestad is a Norwegian Musician, musical conductor and actor, and the daughter of Program 81/82 vocalist Kate Augestad. She focuses on jazz, musical theater, contemporary music, and cabaret. Her stage debut was the lead role in "Annie" in 1994, and won the Norwegian talent competition in 1993 at TV 2.

Education

Augestad was born in Bergen, educated at the Norges Musikkhøgskole in Oslo and the Kungliga Musikhögskolan in Stockholm and has studied singing with such as Torsten Föllinger and Ståle Ytterli, both classical music and jazz. She holds a master's degree in cabaret singing at Norges Musikkhøgskole with particular emphasis on Hanns Eisler, Kurt Weill and American cabaret.

Career

Augestad sang in Det Norske Solistkor and the vocal band Pitsj. She is the lead singer in the ensemble Music for a While, with the record release Weill Variations. They released their second album Graces that refrain accompanied by a tour in Norway. Their third release was the album Canticles of Winter.
Augestad has been a soloist at the show The Source: Of Christmas with "The Source", participated in various cabarets and operas is and has been an actor/singer at "Teater Ibsen" in Skien as well as at the Riksteatret. She conducted the "Norges ungdomskor". She is singing in the trio BOA, has been a soloist with various orchestras and ensembles, including the Oslo Sinfonietta during the "Oslo Kammermusikkfestival".
Augestad moved to Berlin in 2007, and has been currently working with some of Europe's leading ensembles for contemporary music including Ensemble Modern and Klangforum Wien. 15 October 2010 she was a guest on the Beat for beat, a program at NRK1.
Since 2009 she has worked with the Swiss star director Christoph Marthaler. She has participated in the following of his productions at the opera in Basel: as soloist in "Wüstenbuch", in "Meine faire Dame – ein Sprachlabor", and "Lo Stimolatore Cardiaco".
Augestad had her debut in 2012 at the Zürich Opera in a new production by Christoph Marthaler with soloist Anne Sofie von Otter among others.

Discography

Solo albums

;Within Music for a While including with Stian Carstensen, Mathias Eick, Martin Taxt and Pål Hausken
;Within 'Augestad & Waagaard Duo'
;Within 'BOA Trio' including with Morten Barrikmo and Tanja Orning
;Within 'Pitsj'
;With 'Kammerkoret Nova' and Anne Karin Sundal-Ask
;With Trygve Seim, Frode Haltli and Svante Henryson
;With the Oslo Philharmonic