Anna Lapwood is one of the UK’s most dynamic ambassadors for classical music. As the official organist of the Royal Albert Hall, she has broken down genre boundaries and introduced a huge new audience to the organ. She has reached millions via her devoted social media following and helped revitalise repertoire for the instrument through the dedicated commissioning and performing of new works. She is also an established conductor and broadcaster, and a fierce advocate for the advancement of female voices within her industry. The scope of her influence is demonstrated by her appointment as MBE in 2024’s New Year’s Honours list and her inclusion in the 2025 Sunday Times Young Power List, alongside the likes of Lando Norris, Bella Maclean and Molly-Mae Hague.

Anna is a graduate of Oxford University, where she was the first female Organ Scholar in Magdalen College’s 560-year history. In 2016 she also became the Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge – the youngest ever person to be appointed in that role at an Oxbridge college. She remained in the role until August 2025. Her time at Pembroke saw her found a much-lauded girls’ choir, commission works from leading choral composers, and spearhead the release of five records, including 2020’s All Things Are Quite Silent. Her tenure was rounded off with a performance at the BBC Proms, conducting the College Chapel Choir as part of an all-night concert that also featured cellist Anastasia Kobekina and pianist Hayato Sumino among other artists.

As a recitalist, Anna has carved out a niche combining performances of more traditional organ repertoire with film and orchestral music, often in her own arrangements. Her recent touring programmes have placed the music of Duruflé, Gigout and Britten alongside large-scale transcriptions of music from Pirates of the Caribbean and The Lord of the Rings. Recent recital venues include Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, the Sydney Opera House, Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall and Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall. A successful collaboration with AEG Presents has resulted to two sold-out UK tours with a third scheduled for June 2026 featuring her new bespoke touring instrument from Content Organs. In 2025 she also opens for Ludovico Einaudi – whose ‘Experience’ she recorded for the 2023 album LUNA – at London’s O2 Arena. Aside from recitals, her recent concert highlights include performances of Jongen’s Symphonie concertante with the Hallé, Poulenc’s Organ Concerto with both the Hallé and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Saint-Saëns’ ‘Organ’ Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Antonio Pappano.

Among the works written for Anna are Max Richter’s Cosmology for organ, chorus and orchestra, Kristina Arakelyan’s Toccata for organ and orchestra and Olivia Belli’s Limina Luminis for solo organ. The last of these was featured on Firedove, her latest solo record, which was released in 2025 on Sony Classical and reached No. 1 on the Official Classical Artist Albums Chart. A composer and arranger in her own right, Anna is signed to Boosey & Hawkes and has published several choral compositions as well as numerous transcriptions of orchestral music for organ, many of which are top sellers on ArrangeMe. Her debut solo album, 2021’s Images, features her arrangement of Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from ‘Peter Grimes’, while 2023’s LUNA – her first release for Sony Classical – includes her transcriptions of music by film composers Dario Marianelli, James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer. She has also curated and edited Gregoriana, an anthology of organ works based on Gregorian chant, all by contemporary women composers, which was Presto Music’s 2022 Publication of the Year.

A keen collaborator, Anna is an Artist in Association with the BBC Singers and Featured Artist with the Hallé. Her relationship Royal Albert Hall has resulted in some of her most memorable pop collaborations. There she has accompanied artists including AURORA, Bonobo, Florence + the Machine, and Raye, as well as actor Benedict Cumberbatch for Letters Live. Her close relationship with the Hall has also led to the launch of a new annual Organ Scholar Programme, which offers an emerging musician the chance to hone their craft on the Hall’s famous Henry Willis organ, as well as to shadow and perform with Anna in concert.

The scholarship is one of several initiatives demonstrating Anna’s commitment to musical outreach and the fostering of young talent. She also leads regular workshops for young organists around the UK, has hosted BBC Young Musician for BBC Four, and established an annual Cambridge Organ Experience for girls aged 11 to 18. Her relentless encouragement of and support for female organists in particular has made her a role model within that community, neatly captured in the hashtag #playlikeagirl, which she first adopted after being told to ‘play like a man’ during an organ competition. Now with a three-million-strong social media following, she has helped bring the organ, and contemporary ideas of a what an organist can be, to a whole new audience.