Anna Lapwood, dubbed the' TikTok organist," has been made an MBE for her services to music in the New Year Honours. Her medal was presented to her by Princess Anne at Windsor Castle.
Studying piano, violin, viola, and composition as a girl, she became the principal harpist for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the Junior Academy Symphony Orchestra. In 2016, the 21-year-old Lapwood was appointed Director of Music of Pembroke College, Cambridge, becoming the youngest person to become Director of Music at an Oxford or Cambridge university college.
Lapwood has performed at the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall, and played London Bridge station's newly-installed organ in 2022. The latter performance went viral on Twitter. She is also a regular presenter of the BBC Proms, and hosted a weekly classical music program on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire from 2018 to 2020.
Online, her TikTok videos have attracted 25 million likes, earning Lapwood her nickname.
Lapwood said that her investiture was a moment of "public recognition" for the organ. She remarked: "I feel like the organ is one of those instruments that can get pushed to one side, but then, actually, no this has been publicly recognized."
She also mentioned encouraging the princess royal to play the organ at Windsor Castle. When she asked the Princess if she "ever had to go on the organ," the royal answered: "No, I haven't, I think it's a bit late."
Lapwood responded: "Oh, I think you can, I think you could do it, you should do it."
She described receiving an MBE as encouragement that she is going in the right direction. She said: "As a woman in music, and a young woman in music, there can be this thing the whole time where you feel as if, 'Am I doing things right?' And it feels like this little moment of saying, you have done something right, which might sound minor but actually feels like a huge privilege."
