About Amy
Amy Jørgensen is an award-winning Australian composer and pianist.
Amy's story began in a remote country town in outback rural Australia. Even before she started school, Amy’s mother would sit beside her at the piano, recounting stories that Amy would improvise music to. It was in these moments that a love for emotive, musical story-telling was born. Amy's mother told her that one day, she would write music for the movies. Since then, Amy has dedicated her life to writing cinematic music that tells a story.
Amy has written music for dozens of well-known Australian TV shows, including beloved Aussie drama, Home & Away; children’s animations series Bluey; teen fantasy Mako Mermaids; reality series Last Resort and Look Me In the Eye (hosted by Ray Marin): Hamish & Andy's True Story; and Winners & Losers (which was nominated n 2012 as Australia's most popular drama series).
Amy has written music for projects with Channel 7, The Nine Network, The ABC, SBS, National Geographic, Netflix, 21st Century FOX, Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel.
Amy worked with Hollywood film-maker James Cameron (Director of Avatar and Titanic) on the music score for his documentary, Deepsea Challenge 3D, which earned Amy an Australian Academy Award nomination for "Best Original Score".
On the big screen, Amy has written and produced the scores for Early Winter (a Canadian/Australian Feature which screened at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and the 2015 Venice Film Festival; Crime & Punishment (an Australian feature film adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s dark thriller); and Australian comedy feature, The Heckler, which had its premiere at the Los Angeles Comedy Festival in December 2014 and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2015.
Amy has also written and produced music for iOS games (including the much-loved Agent A game), commercials, dance, interactive media and anything that has a storyline!
Amy has collaborated with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, The Australian String Quartet, The Song Company, Warner Music and even composed a fanfare for The Honourable Dame Marie Bashir AD, CVO (former Governor of New South Wales).
Amy's music has been screened and performed in dozens of festivals and concerts across Europe, Asia, the United States, New Zealand and Australia.
Amy is also a classically trained pianist and studied film music in New York City with The X-Files Composer, Mark Snow; and Elementary, Homeland and 24 Composer, Sean Callery.
Amy holds a First Class Honours Degree in Composition from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and an Associate Diploma of Piano Performance. Amy also studied Orchestration at Berklee.
Amy has held positions as Associate Lecturer in Film Music at Monash University and Associate Lecturer in Composition at The University of Sydney.
Amy is also the Founder + Director of the Virtual Piano Academy; and the Founder of Composerfy (a social platform for composers and songwriters).
About Amy
Amy Jørgensen is an award-winning Australian composer and pianist.
Amy's story began in a remote country town in outback rural Australia. Even before she started school, Amy’s mother would sit beside her at the piano, recounting stories that Amy would improvise music to. It was in these moments that a love for emotive, musical story-telling was born. Amy's mother told her that one day, she would write music for the movies. Since then, Amy has dedicated her life to writing cinematic music that tells a story.
Amy has written music for dozens of well-known Australian TV shows, including beloved Aussie drama, Home & Away; children’s animations series Bluey; teen fantasy Mako Mermaids; reality series Last Resort and Look Me In the Eye (hosted by Ray Marin): Hamish & Andy's True Story; and Winners & Losers (which was nominated n 2012 as Australia's most popular drama series).
Amy has written music for projects with Channel 7, The Nine Network, The ABC, SBS, National Geographic, Netflix, 21st Century FOX, Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel.
Amy worked with Hollywood film-maker James Cameron (Director of Avatar and Titanic) on the music score for his documentary, Deepsea Challenge 3D, which earned Amy an Australian Academy Award nomination for "Best Original Score".
On the big screen, Amy has written and produced the scores for Early Winter (a Canadian/Australian Feature which screened at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and the 2015 Venice Film Festival; Crime & Punishment (an Australian feature film adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s dark thriller); and Australian comedy feature, The Heckler, which had its premiere at the Los Angeles Comedy Festival in December 2014 and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2015.
Amy has also written and produced music for iOS games (including the much-loved Agent A game), commercials, dance, interactive media and anything that has a storyline!
Amy has collaborated with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, The Australian String Quartet, The Song Company, Warner Music and even composed a fanfare for The Honourable Dame Marie Bashir AD, CVO (former Governor of New South Wales).
Amy's music has been screened and performed in dozens of festivals and concerts across Europe, Asia, the United States, New Zealand and Australia.
Amy is also a classically trained pianist and studied film music in New York City with The X-Files Composer, Mark Snow; and Elementary, Homeland and 24 Composer, Sean Callery.
Amy holds a First Class Honours Degree in Composition from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and an Associate Diploma of Piano Performance. Amy also studied Orchestration at Berklee.
Amy has held positions as Associate Lecturer in Film Music at Monash University and Associate Lecturer in Composition at The University of Sydney.
Amy is also the Founder + Director of the Virtual Piano Academy; and the Founder of Composerfy (a social platform for composers and songwriters).
Lesser Known Things About Amy Jørgensen
Amy used to be called Amy Bastow. Her old website lurks around the internet here if you're interested.
It's a long story about why Amy's last name changed to Jørgensen. Perhaps you can discuss it with her one day?
Amy's journey has certainly been far from conventional. Her story is one of grit, early mornings and thinking outside the box.
At age 5, Amy entered a talent contest with a piano piece she had written, and got 3rd place. She was devastated and knew she had to hone her craft.
At 12, she played keyboard and arranged songs for a professional covers band.
At 15, she won the Roger Woodward Playoff Competition for a performance of one of her own piano compositions.
Throughout these years, growing up in a town with fewer people than your local shopping centre, Amy would wake at 4:45am every morning to practice piano and write music before she went to school.
With only 300 students at her high school, and with limited resources, Amy had little choice but to study senior school music through correspondence. Despite blitzing it, she never saw an orchestra in the flesh until she reached “the big smoke” to study at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Amy’s versatility is evident in the diversity of her projects. In 2008, she scored music to a 1908 silent black and white film from the National Film and Sound Archives. She’s written a piece for solo drum kit; a piece for an ensemble of unlimited players and a body-percussion piece for children’s choir (which was toured by St. Andrew’s Cathedral School through Greece and Italy in 2012).
Amy’s music was used in the sound exhibition, Music for Imagined Dances, which won the 2012 APRA and AMC Art Music Award for Excellence in Experimental Music. Amy composed the music and sound design for Sydney Place 2020, a film commissioned by the VeNuSW Consortium (Brookfield Multiplex, Plenary Group and Sydney Place Management) to deliver their bid for the design of the new Sydney International Convention, Exhibition and Entertainment Precinct at Darling Harbour.
Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, The Deauville American Film Festival, the LA Comedy Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival, the Rotterdam International Film Festival, the ISCM World New Music Days, the Melbourne Fringe Festival, the Auckland Fringe Festival, the National Gallery of Victoria’s ‘Melbourne Now’ Exhibition, the 40 Hour Film Festival, the London City Film Festival, the Shorts Film Festival, the National Composers’ Forum, the WOW Film Festival and the London Performing Australian Music Competition are some of the many festivals Amy’s music has been a part of.
Amy’s concert music has premiered in Australia’s top performance venues and has been performed internationally in New Zealand, Europe, the United States, Asia and the UK. Her music has been praised by concert-goers and critics alike.
Amy created, hosted and produced the radio show Kiss My Arts for JOY 94.9 (Melbourne). Whilst on the airwaves, Amy interviewed, featured and reviewed over 100 artists and bands, over half of which were independent Australian artists. On her show, Amy broadcast over 60 live-to-air studio performances of new (and often unreleased) songs. Amy interviewed the likes of British India, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Presets, Angus and Julia Stone, Ben Gillies (Co-founder and Drummer of Silverchair), Butterfly Boucher, Hermitude, Jordie Lane, Saskwatch, Alpine, Jack Carty, Polo Club, JD Samson, and Georgie Fair to name a few. Amy even interviewed Yann Tiersen…yep, the guy who wrote the music for the film Amelie!
Amy has also worked as a Music Journalist + Content Writer for Vulture Magazine; as a volunteer counsellor for Switchboard Victoria, and as a Music Festival Judge for mental health charity Listen Up Music.
Amy has published 54 music scores of her works; released 32 podcasts; written 37 articles on music; had music performed at 31 festivals; been the keynote speaker at 9 industry seminars/workshops and worked on 51 commercial film, TV and multi-media projects.
Amy currently works from her studio in Melbourne, and can often be spotted scooting around the city on her little red Vespa or drinking copious amounts of coffee in one of Melbourne’s many amazing cafes. If you see her, say hi!
In the meantime, head to Amy’s contact page to connect, or follow her on Instagram.
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