THE musician Anna Lapwood has been named as the first resident Organist of the Royal Albert Hall (RAH).
Ms Lapwood stepped down as the director of music at Pembroke College, Cambridge, earlier this year to focus on her career as a concert organist. She had joined Pembroke in September 2016 after graduating from Magdalen College, Oxford, where she was its first female organ scholar. She was an RAH Associate Artist from 2022 to 2025.
In her new post, she will continue to use the RAH’s famous Grand Organ — the second largest instrument in the UK — to increase national access to organ and choral music, an announcement from the RAH said.
In an interview with the Church Times in 2022 (Interview, 23 December 2022), Ms Lapwood described the RAH organ as “a very comfortable instrument” to play. She said: “I love the variety of colours it has to offer. I also really enjoy that it’s possible to give people the experience of stumbling across the instrument there. They don’t necessarily go expecting to hear the organ, and it’s quite fun working it into gigs to surprise the audience.”
She also said: “Organs and choral music are a great way to attract more young people. They might come for the music but then stay for the worship.”
As well as headlining auditorium concerts and making guest appearances with artists across different genres, Ms Lapwood will work with the RAH to increase accessibility to the instrument by holding open sessions, and by appointing and supporting its first ever Organ Scholar.
Ms Lapwood said: “This is an extraordinary opportunity for a young organist to have access to this majestic instrument, experience the adrenaline rush of playing in such a special place, and work with me to run organ outreach events to inspire even more people to take up the organ.”
She continued: “I feel very lucky to have been allowed access to the incredible instrument at the Royal Albert Hall over the last few years and it has taught me so much, so I’m incredibly excited to be continuing my partnership with the Hall as its official organist.”
Ms Lapwood, whose father was a Church of England priest, was appointed MBE in the 2024 New Year’s Honours list (News, 5 January 2024). Harper’s Bazaar has described her as “classical music’s Taylor Swift” and last month she was named on the Sunday Times’ Young Power List, celebrating 30 of the most powerful people under 30 in the UK. She first performed at the RAH as a teenager in 2012, when she was a member of the National Youth Orchestra. She returned as a soloist during the 2021 BBC Proms season, and has since headlined the venue.