She’s the online organist, the social media maven with the classical cult following, and she’s coming to Edmonton. Anna Lapwood will be performing at the Francis Winspear Centre for Music on April 25, tickling the keyboards on the Davis Concert Organ.
Lapwood is a social media sensation with 1.5 million followers on Instagram and nearly a quarter of a million subscribers to her YouTube Channel. Her popular videos and posts feature performances of popular classical works or film scores from Interstellar or Pirates of the Caribbean. A performance with electronic group Bonobo went viral with millions of views on YouTube, with the crowd cheers when the organ kicks in and a giant smile on Lapwood’s face.
“I think social media is a really useful tool to break down barriers or perceived barriers around any genre, that’s what I always thought of it doing,” says Lapwood. “When I used to post online, when I was a harpist, I was trying to explain what it’s like being a harpist; it’s a great tool for de-mystifying things.”
She does the same thing now for the organ, explaining the music, the process, the passion behind her performances. It’s also a callback to the work she used to do, and still often does, bringing classical music to younger crowds and teaching the next generation of classical musicians. Lapwood was named the Director of Music of Pembroke College, Cambridge, at the age of 21. She was the youngest person to take up such a post at Cambridge, where she conducted the chapel choir there and continues to work with youth choirs in her work.
The 30-year-old organist is more than a social-media sensation, a flash-in-the-pan performer whose only claim to fame is clicks, views and likes. In 2025, Lapwood was named the inaugural official organist for the Royal Albert Hall, where she performs classical music and has performed alongside groups such as Florence + the Machine.
Lapwood started playing music young; the daughter of an Anglican clergyman, she was exposed to the organ at a young age. She plays, or more accurately “played” as she corrects, 15 different instruments and was at one time studying the harp; you can still find early videos of her playing the giant instrument on YouTube. It was when she got to university that her choice of instrument was disrupted, all because of the advantages of organ players in dorms.
“I was convinced I was going to be a harpist. My mom told me organ players get a grand piano in their room. I thought, “Maybe I will take up the organ and maybe I will get a grand piano.”
That swap, from the delicate strings of the harp to the massive organ, would introduce her to the world of choral music and prove prophetic. Now she travels the world to perform in new buildings, getting to try out new organs in new locations. In Edmonton, she will have to get acquainted with the Davis Concert Organs, one of the largest in the country.
“Every building has different acoustics, a different kind of character,” says Lapwood. “I think it’s always an interesting thing to getting to know the building itself.”
Lapwood plans hours of rehearsals before a performance to get the feel of new instruments. She sometimes needs to rewrite pieces or at least “reconsider” how they are performed. On a recent trip to Australia, she had to re-work a melody she normally plays with her left hand, instead using pedals and playing it with her feet.
“Sometimes you have to listen to what the organ is telling you,” says Lapwood.
She will be performing a series of minimalist music arranged for solo organ, as well as her popular film scores in Edmonton. If they are lucky, audiences may even get to see her in her signature sequined jacket, a style she has refined specifically for performing from up in the rafters on the organ, so far away from the stage and the audience.
“The reason I love sequined jackets so much, if you’re at the back of the room every movement is magnified. Every little movement is magnified 10-fold by the sequins. I just love it,” says Lapwood.
Anna Lapwood in Concert
What: An Organ Recital Featuring the Davis Concert Organ
When: April 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: The Francis Winspear Centre for Music, 4 Sir Winston Churchill Square
Tickets: Sold out
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