Australian Story S30E30 - Striking A Chord - Astrid Jorgensen
Summary:
Monday's Australian Story profiles Astrid Jorgensen, founder of the wildly successful Pub Choir.
Astrid Jorgensen has always had a love-hate relationship with music. But that hasn't stopped her becoming one of Australia's biggest musical acts.
The founder of the wildly successful Pub Choir, where strangers gather in pubs to sing in three-part harmony, Astrid has taken years to find her voice.
As a child she had a natural talent for music, but a violin teacher killed her confidence.
‘I thought that music was torture during this time', Astrid tells Australian Story. ‘Music's not for me.'
Searching for a purpose, Astrid travelled to Africa, determined to become a nun and when that didn't work out, a high school music teacher.
It wasn't until Astrid 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.'
Astrid has now taken Pub Choir from small suburban bars to the world stage, appearing on America's Got Talent and getting the thumbs up from megastar Kate Bush.
‘It's about togetherness ... an experience that can only happen in a real-life space with human beings," says musician and fan Ben Lee. ‘She's an original. She's one of a kind.'
