{"id":36444,"date":"2023-12-09T10:58:35","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T09:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/29cb7c06-273a-496d-b079-984b6c542fa0"},"modified":"2023-12-09T11:39:56","modified_gmt":"2023-12-09T10:39:56","slug":"who-is-anna-lapwood-meet-the-organist-and-tiktok-star","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/who-is-anna-lapwood-meet-the-organist-and-tiktok-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Anna Lapwood? Meet the organist and TikTok star"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Hannah Nepilova\n <\/p>

Published: Saturday, 09 December 2023 at 09:58 AM<\/p>

\n\n

Read on for our introduction to the organist, presenter and TikTok sensation, Anna Lapwood.<\/p>

Who is Anna Lapwood?<\/h2>
Anna Lapwood, 27, has been described by the New York Times as ‘the world’s most visible organist.’<\/strong><\/p>
Hailing from a small Oxfordshire village, Lapwood studied Music at Magdalen College, Oxford, where she was the first woman in the college’s 560-year history to receive an organ scholarship.<\/p>
<\/div><\/figure><p>She now runs choirs and teaches at Cambridge University’s Pembroke College by day, and, by night, her role as Associate Artist of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/who-designed-and-built-the-royal-albert-hall\/\"><strong>Royal Albert Hall<\/strong><\/a> sees her granted special access to the grand venue’s historic organ.<\/p><ul><li><strong><a class=\"standard-card-newarticle-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/five-facts-about-royal-albert-hall-organ\/\">Five facts about the Royal Albert Hall organ<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 id=\"h-who-has-anna-lapwood-played-with\">Who has Anna Lapwood played with?<\/h2><p>This has led to some entirely spontaneous collaborations, not least with electronic musician Bonobo. One late-night practice session halted for a request shouted up from the stage, which turned out to come from a couple of members of Bonobo\u2019s band. Eighteen hours later, she was helping them close their show to an unsuspecting audience of 5,000.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embedwrapper\"><iframe title=\"Bonobo & Anna Lapwood perform Otomo live at the Royal Albert Hall\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AdyAF9M3XVw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><p>On another occasion, a practice session coincided with Benedict Cumberbatch appearing at the Hall. Lapwood approached the actor and asked if he wanted to try out the organ. He and his wife Sophie Hunter, theatre and opera director, accepted.<\/p><p>‘I played for them for about ten minutes, and then they both had a go,’ says Lapwood. ‘Benedict played <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/johann-sebastian-bach\/\"><strong>Bach<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s Prelude In C Major (BWV 846). We had a chat and after they left, I started practising ‘Cornfield Chase’ [from the movie <em>Interstellar, <\/em>scored by Hans Zimmer].<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe title=\"Anna Lapwood - Cornfield Chase (From "Interstellar")\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fyxq39JN_sE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><ul><li><strong><a class=\"standard-card-newarticle-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/best-hans-zimmer-film-scores\/\">Which are the best Hans Zimmer film scores?<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 id=\"h-how-many-women-organists-are-there-in-the-uk\">How many women organists are there in the UK?<\/h2><p>‘Benedict\u2019s bodyguards ran back on stage as they love the piece and Benedict followed and asked if I could do it again so he could film it. When I finished, I realised he was crying, and he said: “You\u2019ve got to join Letters Live tomorrow”. Then I started crying!’<\/p><p>As Benedict read former US President Richard Nixon\u2019s letter, written to be shared if the moon landings had failed and lives had been lost, Lapwood played ‘Cornfield Chase’ to close the show.<\/p><p>Only 8% of organists responsible for recitals in the UK in 2022 are women, but Lapwood, who has 450,000+ TikTok followers and whose social media hashtag is <b>#<\/b>playlikeagirl, is keen to reinvent the image of the organ (one of the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/instruments\/hardest-instruments-to-play\">hardest instruments<\/a><\/strong> to play, incidentally).<\/p><p>‘There\u2019s all sorts of old ideas about who goes to an organ concert, and it was seen as having gone out of fashion. That has definitely changed,\u201d insists Anna: \u201cThis instrument is anything from boring \u2013 just ask Benedict Cumberbatch!’<\/p><p><em>Photo: Charlotte Ellis<\/em><\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embedwrapper\"><iframe title=\"Bonobo & Anna Lapwood perform Otomo live at the Royal Albert Hall\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AdyAF9M3XVw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><div class=\"is-layout-flow is-layout-flow wp-block-group highlight-box\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\"><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/250-young-singers-to-perform-alongside-world-renowned-musicians-at-ely-cathedral\/\">250 young singers to perform alongside world-renowned musicians at Ely Cathedral<\/a><\/strong><\/li><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/watch-sheffield-concert-interrupted-as-rain-cascades-through-cathedral-roof\/\">Watch: Sheffield concert interrupted as rain cascades through cathedral roof<\/a><\/strong><\/li><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/video-violinist-joshua-bell-performs-the-butterfly-lovers-concerto\/\">Video: violinist Joshua Bell performs the Butterfly Lovers Concerto<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Hannah Nepilova Published: Saturday, 09 December 2023 at 09:58 AM Read on for our introduction to the organist, presenter and TikTok sensation, Anna Lapwood. Who is Anna Lapwood? Anna Lapwood, 27, has been described by the New York Times as ‘the world’s most visible organist.’ Hailing from a small Oxfordshire village, Lapwood studied Music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":36445,"template":"","categories":[1,17],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/12\/who-is-anna-lapwood-meet-the-organist-and-tiktok-star.jpg",1594,1262,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/12\/who-is-anna-lapwood-meet-the-organist-and-tiktok-star-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/12\/who-is-anna-lapwood-meet-the-organist-and-tiktok-star-300x238.jpg",300,238,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/12\/who-is-anna-lapwood-meet-the-organist-and-tiktok-star-768x608.jpg",768,608,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/12\/who-is-anna-lapwood-meet-the-organist-and-tiktok-star-1024x811.jpg",800,634,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/12\/who-is-anna-lapwood-meet-the-organist-and-tiktok-star-1536x1216.jpg",1536,1216,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/12\/who-is-anna-lapwood-meet-the-organist-and-tiktok-star.jpg",1594,1262,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Hannah Nepilova Published: Saturday, 09 December 2023 at 09:58 AM Read on for our introduction to the organist, presenter and TikTok sensation, Anna Lapwood. Who is Anna Lapwood? Anna Lapwood, 27, has been described by the New York Times as ‘the world’s most visible organist.’ Hailing from a small Oxfordshire village, Lapwood studied Music…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/36444"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}