In 2024, Anna Lapwood made her Walt Disney Concert Hall debut with a mix of movie music and modern works. With roughly 700,000 followers on TikTok and an unofficial title from The New York Times as “the world’s most visible organist,” Lapwood used her internet fame to reach new audiences, introduce them to the organ, and push beyond the boundaries of the classical world. 

Two years later, Lapwood continues to live up to her “title,” more than doubling her following on every social media platform and becoming what she calls “the most unbound, unruled version of myself.” 

Here, she tells us more, sharing some of her favorite film music, highlighting her latest projects, and previewing her return to Downtown Los Angeles. 

How do you remember your first recital at Walt Disney Concert Hall? What are you most looking forward to about returning? 

I often think about my [Walt Disney Concert Hall] debut concert because it was at a time in my playing when I had just started touring properly—not full-time, but I just started taking it very seriously and thinking maybe this is something I want to do full-time. 

I remember that concept being a pivotal one because I found the organ at Walt Disney Concert Hall so inspiring. It’s got such an amazing tonal specification. The sounds that you can create with it are just so exciting. With all the bells and everything, I remember feeling really, really inspired and experimental, rewriting bits and pieces for that program so that I could try and do it justice.  

The response from the audience was incredible and having them all surrounding me as well was really special.

That concert has stuck in my head, and I’ve been wanting to come back ever since. I’m just really excited to encounter that inspiring organ again, encountering it where I am now with my playing compared to where I was then. That performance was the catalyst for me to be so much more experimental with the transcriptions that I write. 

The program I’m bringing [on May 3, 2026], in a way, is weirdly inspired by this organ. The new Lord of the Rings transcription that I’ve written, the Pirates of the Caribbean Suite—it is all of my favorite music and getting to play it on such an incredible instrument is going to be quite cool. 

People may think they know these film scores, but they might not have heard it on an organ. What’s something new you hope to bring to these more familiar works?  

One of the things I love about playing these scores is showing how the organ can replicate the sound and feel of a full orchestra and demonstrating how far we can push ourselves, as organists, in that literature.  

Sometimes people can think, “Oh, film music. That’s really easy.” And any orchestral musician will be able to tell you, even if you’re playing the original, it’s not easy. If you’re playing it all by yourself, on one instrument, it’s also not easy.  

There are moments in The Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean music where I’m doing five melodies at once—right hand, left hand, right foot, left foot, and thumbs down on the bottom keyboard! It pushes you as far as you can—as far as I can push myself at the moment, at least.  

It’s some of the hardest stuff I’ve ever played, and by showing what the organ and an organist can do, it reveals all the storytelling that comes along with it. That’s what I find most exciting.  

This music is my music—the music I grew up with. [Film music] has always been my favorite genre, I guess, and getting to encounter the organ on my own terms through that music is what has made me fall in love with the pipe organ. Before I played film scores, I quite liked the organ, but I didn’t love it. Now, I am utterly obsessed with it because I’m doing it on my terms. I think there’s something really lovely and liberating about that. 

A lot of film music is actually incredibly dissonant, but we are used to it because we know it from the film. I think [putting this music on a program] is a great way to show what audiences are happy to listen to. Sometimes people say, “If you want to get a good-sized audience, you have to avoid certain sounds,” but it’s actually just about putting the music in context.  

In my programs, I try to use the film music as a bridge. People often come to hear the film scores, but I also play contemporary classical music, Minimalism, and other stuff. It’s a fun exercise in seeing where we can take people next.  

You’re a known advocate for diversifying concert repertoire, and this year, contemporary composers Olivia Belli and Rachel Portman are on the program. Can you speak to the importance of uplifting works by women as well as blending the old with the new?  

Yeah, it’s interesting, isn’t it? I think everyone finds their music which really speaks to them. And for me, it is film scores and contemporary classical music.  

Within that, I have a real frustration at the blindness, it seems, to the need for gender diversity. Now that I’m doing more concerts with orchestra, I’ve found that it’s such hard work to try to make sure that they always program something by a woman. They’ll say, “Oh, but it’s not our repertoire.” And I’m like, “Well, make it your repertoire!” 

I see part of my job as introducing people to the music they haven’t heard—like the Olivia Belli piece [Limina Luminis]; it’s one of my favorites. I played it last time I was here, and people always leave the concert saying it’s one of their favorite pieces from the program. 

I just think it’s so important to make sure people are encountering music by women as well. The Rachel Portman piece, Flight, I adore! And it works really nicely as a pair with the Olivia Belli.

The genre boundaries we put around things are totally artificial. We have just decided that those boundaries exist, and I don’t think the current young generation really thinks those boundaries exist. So, with my programming, I just play the music that I love, and it will be a whole range of genres. If there’s Robbie Williams in there, there’s Robbie Williams in there! 

It’s very liberating when you start to program like that, when I just put down the music that speaks to me and that I trust will work together in that context. I hope it takes the listener on the journey, even if it’s not the journey they might expect. 

It’s kind of how we stream music—you can pick whatever you want to hear in that moment. When you’re reminded of your free will, you realize that you can make your own rules, explore your own way, and deviate from the “norm.” 

Yeah, that’s the thing! I feel as if people—the younger generation—listen in the same way that they scroll. They stumble across music, and if they like it, they’ll listen to it again, and they’ll listen to more of it, and they’ll want to learn more.  

It’s kind of the ideal time for us as classical musicians and as organists because there is an audience that’s present, eager, and excited to learn more. It’s just about how you present it. 

It’s hard to talk about you as “the world’s most visible organist” (The New York Times) without bringing up your online presence—which now stands at over 3 million followers across all of your social platforms. 

How has social media helped you as an artist and a communicator, and what impact has it had on how you engage with or foster community? 

Social media has always been really important to me. Even when I was a teenager, I had Twitter (as it was then), and I used to tweet about what it was like being a harpist, because I was a harpist at that time. It’s always been a big part of my life—sharing the behind the scenes.  

Obviously, it’s grown in quite a big way in the last couple of years, which, to be honest, I still don’t really understand. I still find it very, very surreal! I try not to think about the numbers too much because it becomes bizarre. 

I never set out to grow a huge following. I just set out to share the reality of what it’s like doing this job because it’s a bit weird. The really lovely thing that’s come out of it is the fact that I care so deeply about my audience and creating an experience that will live with them for a long time.  

The flip side is that my audience has helped me figure out who I am and, somewhat, given me permission to be who I am as a musician and as a person as well. When I’m onstage, I think I’m the freest version of myself. I’m the most unbound, unruled version of myself that I wish I could be the whole time. Most of the time, I have quite strict rules for myself, and I’m quite shy, and that just goes [away] when I’m on stage because I feel that my audience has put their trust in me.

Without them, I wouldn’t have discovered that I was allowed to play film scores and concerts. I thought it was “banned”—something that would get shot down if I tried it straight away. And actually, my audience has given me permission to do it and then see how far I can push it, explore, and write.

Often, I’ll write a new transcription, and I’ll premiere it in the concert that day or the next day, which is something I never would have dreamt of doing a couple of years ago—even the last time I was at Disney Hall! [My listeners have] given me a freedom to experiment, which I think is so valuable as a musician, and I just feel eternally grateful to that community for helping me figure out who I am. 

Out of your countless viral videos, which have been the most memorable?  

I think the first really big one was the video with Bonobo. I had just started at the Royal Albert Hall as one of the associate artists, and this electronic band Bonobo were doing a five-night residency. I had an overnight rehearsal on their fourth night, and the band ended up coming up to see the organ. And then, they asked me to join their show the next night!

That was kind of exactly what I’d hoped we might be able to do with that associate role, but we’d all said it wouldn’t actually happen.

When I joined the show, it was my first real exploration of anything outside the classical world, properly on the organ. It was so outside of my comfort zone, I had no idea what was going on, and when I sat down at the organ, they put the music in front of me and were like, “Sight-read it, off you go!” 

It was so different than whatever I thought I would do, and it was the most liberating, amazing concert experience I’ve ever had.  

The video of it went really, really viral. I still have people now, three or four years later, coming to my concerts who say they’ve been following me ever since that one video. 

I think that really showed me the power of social media, to break down perceived barriers, because I suddenly started getting loads of electronic music fans coming to organ concerts who’d never been to a classical concert before. And that made me go, “Oh heck, I have a responsibility here! I have to think about how to do this, how to achieve that, and break down these barriers.” 

I feel so lucky to have also gotten to [collaborate with] Tom Cruise, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Ludovico Einaudi. The thing that has really struck me—with all of those celebrities and people who I’ve had the privilege of meeting through the organ—is that every single one of them has been incredibly curious, grateful, generous with their time, and kind to everyone around them. 

I’m sure there are some people who will say, “They’re just like putting [a front] on.” But they were not. You could tell that they felt so much gratitude for what they got to do. Tom Cruise met all of the people working in the kitchens, and many of them really went out of their way to make everyone feel seen and special. I found that very inspiring in itself.  

It’s been a bit of a surreal journey, and to be honest, it never feels like any of that happened to me.

After nine years of being Pembroke College’s Director of Music, you stepped down to devote yourself to touring, recording, and serving as the Royal Albert Hall’s official organist. What are you most looking forward to about this next chapter in your career? 

Now is a really interesting time because it’s my first year doing this after having been spread between two different full-time jobs for quite a long time now. I really miss the singers I worked with in Pembroke, and I miss conducting the music, but now I’m feeling the difference in my playing.  

I’m playing the organ for eight, nine hours, basically every day at the moment, and that just has a huge impact in how you perform. I perform two or three times a week, almost every week. I have now performed in every physical state you can imagine—while ill, with period pain, sleep-deprived, and when I’ve been really hyper.

You learn so much about yourself musically through that process, and you discover that you can do it and what you need to do to support your body. 

Without having the job at Pembroke, I have the time to do that exploration. I also had the time to write The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony, which I never would have been able to do if I still had the other job. So it is a really exciting and interesting time. I think I’m just trying to use this year to learn as much as I can about what I find most fulfilling in terms of performances.  

[My team and I are] starting to think about maybe building some arena shows and ask ourselves, “How can we be as creative as possible and bring the organ to as many people as we can?” And that’s a cool place to be. 

Where did the idea for The Lord of the Rings Organ Symphony come from? What was the creative process like? 

It’s actually funny. It was when I was last in the US, doing a concert in New York. I was getting coffee the day before the concert, and there was a little girl in the coffee shop. She was giving me a weird look, and I was like… Either I’ve spilled something on my face, or she knows who I am. And so I kind of smiled at her, and then her mom was like, “Oh my gosh, we’re coming to your concert! We’re so excited! This is Catherine, she’s a massive fan, it’s her birthday”.  

I asked Catherine what her favorite piece was, and of all things, she said, ““Concerning Hobbits” because it’s like catnip.” I’m thinking to myself, “I love this girl! This is amazing.”  

But I had to tell her, “Oh, well, I don’t actually play that, but I’ll see if I can play something else for you.” And then I went straight to the church, wrote a little arrangement of Concerning Hobbits for her, and played it during the concert the next day.

I parked that idea for a while, but it steadily grew in my head. I knew I wanted to write a suite of music from The Lord of the Rings, so I started a playlist, as I often do when I’m thinking about writing a suite. I just added all of the tracks from the album that I wanted to include, and after that process, I ended up with something like four hours of music!  

It was out of hand, so I enlisted some help from a couple of the singers in Pembroke who are massive Lord of the Rings fans, and together we whittled it down a bit.  

I just kept doing that process on all my flights. Basically, I was experimenting with order, bringing in different tracks, taking them out, seeing what would work. 

At the beginning of this period of touring, I suddenly felt like it was right time to start writing. This is often what happens—you do a lot of listening over the course of about a year, never knowing when you’ll be ready to write, and then, suddenly, your brain says, “Now!” And so I just stayed late for a couple of nights in a row, writing this thing until it became the Organ Symphony.  

What has been really amazing is getting to work with [The Lord of the Rings composer] Howard Shore. Obviously, we asked for his permission, and he was really, really generous, and said, “Yes, absolutely. Feel free to send me anything.” So I sent him my initial thoughts, then the sort-of-finished version, and he and his team went over it, note by note, checking everything against their scores, because I did the whole thing by ear! By the way, I prefer doing it like that, because I find I’m more creative.  

They helped with a couple cluster chords and things, and then I ended up recording it in Norway earlier this year [in 2025] for my next album. When I was there, I felt that it needed one more movement, so I ended up staying up really late on the penultimate night, writing a whole new movement, learning it, and then recording it the next day.  

It’s been a very, very involved creative process. It’s been the biggest thing I’ve ever written. I have totally immersed myself, not just in the musical world, but in the entire world of The Lord of the Rings. I’m now an even bigger fan than I was before! It’s such an inspiring world because you can feel the love from every single person involved in it—Tolkien, obviously, but when you look at the films, the soundtracks, the interviews with the cast and with Howard, you see that this was one of the most special four-year periods where they all just lived it and believed it. I think that’s why those films have gained such beautiful popularity, because you feel the love in every moment.  

I hope that people might feel the love in the music from me as well. 

This is only your first big project like this, but it sounds like you’re up for more. What’s next? What’s your dream project?  

What’s interesting is that I basically just have a giant list [of ideas] going all the time, and I just keep adding to it. I never quite know which one’s going to suddenly jump out as the next one. I don’t know how many films I have on my list that I want to transcribe. Maybe 30? 

Last week, The Lion King randomly popped out—literally, I just woke up the morning after a concert and was like, “I’m ready,” and that morning I wrote a transcription of the “Stampede” from The Lion King. I learned it that afternoon, and I nearly performed it in the concert that evening, but it’s too hard to do straight away. 

That’s my latest one that I’m now working on, but I want to do an extended Lion King after that. I have no idea…there are just so many soundtracks that I adore, and it’s kind of fun just letting your brain pick the next project when it’s ready.