Page 94 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK

Trailblazer

Lapwood has since continued to go against the grain, becoming the first female organ scholar in
Magdalen College Oxford's 560-year history, and then at the age of 21, becoming the youngest ever
director of music at any Oxbridge college when she took up the role at Pembroke College,
Cambridge. In applying for the scholarship, Lapwood was blissfully unaware of the significance of
this, as the historic gender imbalance in the organ world – a combined result of boy choristers
being the natural breeding ground for organists, and the few female organists ‘self-selecting’
themselves out of ‘top’ positions, Lapwood believes – was not really on her radar. ‘In a way, the
beauty of it for me was that I had no idea what I was letting myself in for – I was coming from the
total outside of that world,’ she says. ‘When the director of music at Magdalen said I should think
about applying there, I didn't know what that meant, I didn't understand the connotations; I didn't
realise I was going to be the first woman. I just thought, how nice – someone wants me.’

When, while still only 20, Lapwood interviewed for the position of director of music at Pembroke
College – thinking there was ‘no way’ they were going to appoint her – she was offered the job on
the day, which was ‘terrifying and amazingly exciting’. ‘I turned up [on my first day] thinking I knew
an awful lot more than I did,’ she says, matter-of-factly, ‘and had to learn or relearn a lot of things,
particularly about how to manage people.’ She adds, ‘It was a lot of trial and error, and I was very
lucky that the group I had were okay with me experimenting; I feel like I've learnt so much from
them in the last five years. I adore the Chapel Choir – they're such wonderful human beings.’

‘Frustrating’ discrepancy

In 2018, soon after starting in the position, Lapwood set up the Pembroke College Girls’ Choir, which
brings together female singers from secondary schools around Cambridge and provides a
‘comprehensive music education’. The choir gives girls the opportunity to experience life as a
chorister at a Cambridge college, with two weekly rehearsals and a Choral Evensong service.
Although choristers have historically been male, this tradition is finally changing, and more and
more cathedrals around the country are welcoming girls into their stalls. In recruiting singers for the
choir, Lapwood aims for a 60/40 state/private split, which they ‘haven't really had that many issues
achieving’. ‘The trouble with this in somewhere like Cambridge,’ says Lapwood, ‘is that state/private
doesn't really mean anything. The state schools in Cambridge offer such incredible musical
opportunities.’

Speaking about how she's seen singing in the choir ‘genuinely transform’ some of its members,
Lapwood continues: ‘It makes me so cross that the opportunities are still only really there for the
select few – it's chance, where you're born, and what opportunities you stumble across, whether
you end up getting that life-changing opportunity or not. I just find the discrepancy of opportunity
so frustrating.’

As part of their membership of the Pembroke College Chapel Choir, all of the singers also teach or
lead workshops with young children. ‘I think it's a wonderful way for them to learn and give back,’
says Lapwood. ‘I have all these grand, ridiculous ideas about partnerships between, for example,
university music programmes and schools. I would love to see that kind of thing become
compulsory to try and facilitate a cheaper process.’ She adds: ‘But then I don't think it should be a
cheap process – [access to music education] is something we should be investing money into.’

I ask Lapwood what changes she'd like to see within music education in England over the next five
years. ‘If I could wave a magic wand, then it would be free music lessons for everyone and choirs in