Anna Ruth Ella LapwoodMBE (born 28 July 1995[1][2]) is a British organist, choir director and television and radio presenter. In 2016 she was appointed Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge, one of the youngest people ever to have directed an Oxford or Cambridge university college choir, and in 2018 she established a girls' choir at the College.[2] As an associate artist at the Royal Albert Hall in London since 2022, her recordings have reached a wide audience on social media.[3]
She studied piano, violin, viola and composition at the Junior Royal Academy of Music and was the principal harpist for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the Junior Academy Symphony Orchestra.[4]
Lapwood was appointed as Director of Music of Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 2016. On appointment she was the youngest person to hold the position of Director of Music at an Oxford or Cambridge university college, taking up the position at the age of 21.[6] As Director of Music, she conducts the chapel choir,[7] and in 2020 she became the youngest Bye-Fellow in the College's history.[8]
In 2018 Lapwood founded the Pembroke College Girls’ Choir for girls from local schools aged 11–18, which performs Evensong weekly during term time.[9][10] She also runs the Cambridge Organ Experience for Girls every year.[11] She inaugurated the annual Pembroke College Bach-a-thon in 2017, initially to raise funds for Pembroke College Choir's tour to Zambia. In 2018, all of the organists taking part in the Bach-a-thon were female.[12] In 2019, Lapwood established another choir at Pembroke College, designed to teach sight-reading skills to singers.[13]
On 15 December 2019, Lapwood and the choirs of Pembroke College appeared on BBC One's show Britain's Christmas Story, presented by Gareth Malone and Karen Gibson.[14]
Recitals and performances
The organ at the Royal Albert Hall in London, where Lapwood is an associate artist.
As an organist, Lapwood has performed at the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Festival Hall and St Thomas Church in New York. In 2019 she opened the Bafta television awards on the organ at the Royal Festival Hall, and she frequently travels around the United Kingdom and Europe on tours.[15]
As a conductor, Lapwood directed the BBC Singers as part of the BBC Inspire Programme. She has led choral workshops in Thailand, Perth, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Lusaka, and regularly works in Zambia through her role as a trustee of The Muze Trust.[16]
In 2022 she was named an associate artist at the Royal Albert Hall,[18] and an ambassador for the Cathedral Music Trust, alongside Alexander Armstrong.[19]
In May 2022 Lapwood was unexpectedly invited to play with the electronic artist Bonobo and his band on their fifth and final night at the Royal Albert Hall. After band members overheard Lapwood rehearsing on the Hall's main organ in the early hours of the morning, the band asked her to join their performance the next day. Eighteen hours later, an organ part had been written especially for Lapwood to accompany Bonobo for the closing show, with an audience of 5,000.[20][21] The video of the performance became popular on social media platforms, registering more than 5.6 million views on Lapwood's TikTok account.[22][23] Lapwood later called the experience "genuinely life-changing"" [24] and "undoubtedly, the best moment of my life so far".[20]
As a broadcaster, Lapwood hosted a weekly classical music show on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire from 2018 to 2020,[28] and is a contributor to BBC Radio 3, having appeared on Record Review with Andrew McGregor.[29] Because of her popularity on social media, she has occasionally been referred to as the "TikTok Organist"[30] and uses the hashtag #playlikeagirl.[18][31][32]
Lapwood was the main presenter of the televised highlights of the 2020 BBC Young Musician competition, which aired in 2021 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.[33]
Lapwood has since been seen as a regular TV presenter of the BBC Proms, including presenting the live broadcast of the 2023 first night of the Proms alongside Sandi Toksvig and Clive Myrie.[34]
^"Our Members". SWO. Retrieved 16 September 2019. Anna has recently set up the Pembroke College Girls' Choir, providing a choral education for girls aged 11-18
