Astrid Jorgensen has always had a complicated relationship with music – sometimes loving it, sometimes fearing it. But that didn’t stop her from becoming one of Australia’s most original musical voices.
As the founder of the wildly successful Pub Choir, Jorgensen has transformed the simple act of singing in bars into a national phenomenon, where strangers gather in pubs to sing three-part harmonies. Her journey to this point, however, was anything but straightforward.
As a child, she had a natural talent for music, but was stifled by a harsh violin teacher: “I thought that music was torture during this time,” she told Australian Story. “Music’s not for me.”
For a time, she sought purpose elsewhere, traveling to Africa with the intention of becoming a nun, before trying her hand as a high school music teacher. But it wasn’t until she hit upon the idea of teaching ordinary people to sing together that she found her calling.
“I try and have a transformation between me and the audience, where I start out as the performer…and then by the end, I hope to switch.”
View this post on Instagram
Love Film & TV?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in music, film and TV in Australia and abroad.
From small suburban bars to global stages, Pub Choir has captured hearts across the world. The project has even appeared on “America’s Got Talent” and earned praised from local and global music icons like Ben Lee and Kate Bush.
“It’s about togetherness … an experience that can only happen in a real-life space with human beings,” Lee said of the project. “She’s an original. She’s one of a kind.”
Jorgensen’s Pub Choir journey will feature in the next episode of ABC’s Australian Story, premiering September 29.