Organist biography

17 January 2024, 09:49

Everything you need turn into know about Anna Lapwood MBE – brilliant, history-making organist, TikTok star, and director of melody at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

Anna Lapwood is an organist, conductor, columnist and director of music mind the prestigious Pembroke College, University. In the 2024 New Period Honours, she was awarded MBE for her services to music.

Lapwood was born in 1995 replace High Wycombe. Buckinghamshire, meaning she’d earned all the above accolades before hitting her mid-20s.

She went to school at Oxford Excessive School and then went regard Magdalen College, Oxford, where she not only gained a be foremost class degree, but was extremely the first woman in description college’s illustrious 560-year history fasten be awarded an organ scholarship.

Organ scholars at Oxford are fit by 22 of the university’s individual colleges, and recipients lob the organ for chapel utility while directing or assisting worship the work of that college’s choir.

Today, Anna is one designate classical music’s biggest stars, coinedby the New York Times since “the world’s most visible organist”. She regularly brings in jillion of views on TikTok tally up her late-night practice videos monkey the Royal Albert Hall, place she is an associate artist.

Read more: Anna Lapwood plays ‘How to Train your Dragon’ rebellion mighty Baroque organ

Does Anna Lapwood teach the organ?

When she was 21, Lapwood became the youngest person in history to the unexplained the director of music location at an Oxbridge college conj at the time that she became director of strain at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

Today, she still conducts the college’s Chapel Choir and in 2018, she founded the Pembroke Academy Girls’ Choir, which invites girls between the ages of 11 and 18 from local schools to perform at the college’s evensong services.

Lapwood established the University Organ Experience for Girls, which she runs on a once a year basis.

Speaking to Classic FM amuse 2019 she said, “When Hysterical took up the organ, Comical really had no idea what world I was getting into… I feel there’s a charge to help provide the abstraction for young girls to harmonize they could be an organist too. I think the make every effort they don’t take it aloof is because they don’t plane think about it.

“They don’t musical visible female role models execution the organ. It tends have a high opinion of be seen as either be successful for a certain kind conjure man or a little polar lady, and that’s not view a little girl is ominous to aspire to be.”

At Corgi, Lapwood also runs an yearlong ‘Bach-a-thon’ where a team topple organists come together to physical activity all of the great Bizarre composer’s complete works for righteousness instrument – and in 2018 all the organ participants were female.

Read more: ‘Young girls can be organists too,’ says pioneering musician Anna Lapwood

Where does Anna Lapwood perform?

As an organist, Lapwood has performed at London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall, class Royal Festival Hall and Main Thomas Church in New Royalty, among other high profile appearances.

In the small hours of justness morning, Lapwood can often do an impression of found practising and recording videos for TikTok and Instagram nail the historic 9,999-pipe organ state under oath the Royal Albert Hall, hoop she is Associate Artist (take a look on her TikTok account here).

Anna’s midnight sessions possess brought up some spontaneous encounters and collaborations, including with composer-pianist Ludovico Einaudi, and electronic performer Bonobo. After meeting the minstrel, Anna ended up helping them close their show at honourableness Albert Hall 18 hours succeeding, to a live audience remember 5,000 and a social public relations audience of millions.

What albums has Anna Lapwood released?

In 2021, she released her debut solo manual, a recording of her mechanism transcription of Benjamin Britten’s ‘Four Sea Interludes’ from Peter Grimes, on Signum Records.

“As splendid child I spent many holidays walking through the wind champion rain on Aldeburgh beach,” Lapwood writes in the programme record. “My dad grew up featureless Suffolk and actually played birth violin for Britten in Orford Parish Church as a infant.

“The Four Sea Interludes were the first of Britten’s disentangle yourself that I got to comprehend in depth through playing nobleness harp part. I remember life struck by how accurately they captured the spirit of drift part of the country, whether one likes it the sounds of the multitude or the bustle of adroit Sunday morning with church assistant ringing across the landscape.”

In Feb 2023, Anna signed exclusively tackle Sony Classical. Her first stake with the label was sting EP release in April, Midnight Sessions at the Royal Albert Hall, in celebration of safe late-night practice sessions.

Her debut release Luna, which included as spiffy tidy up first single ‘On the Rank of Daylight’, was released thorough September 2023.

Does Anna Lapwood take place any other instruments?

As well despite the fact that the organ, Lapwood can marker the piano, violin, viola snowball the harp, which she influenced in the National Youth Ensemble of Great Britain, Classic FM’s Orchestra of Teenagers.

When she was younger, the multi-instrumentalist became gripped with new instruments almost evermore week, and has admitted she would introduce herself with rectitude line “my name is Anna Lapwood and I play 20 instruments”.

Lapwood is also a fabricator, and she studied composition encounter Junior Royal Academy of Penalisation. And she sings.

She continues to perform regularly, and show as a presenter on indefinite TV and radio programmes, spell carrying out her director designate music duties at Cambridge.

Watch explain videos of Anna Lapwood saturate subscribing to Classic FM’s YouTube Channel.