Page 96 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK

The future of classical music

When we speak, Lapwood has recently been appointed associate artist at the Royal Albert Hall,
alongside saxophonist and presenter Jess Gillam, choreographer and filmmaker Corey Baker, and
spoken-word performer LionHeart. Their appointments are part of the Royal Albert Hall's ‘wider push
around innovation and diversity’, and it's hoped that the group's work will ‘increase young people's
engagement with more traditional artforms’. One news story about Lapwood's appointment dubs
her the ‘TikTok organist’, which, she tells me now, she doesn't like – ‘it's like when you're constantly
referred to as a female organist. You're just an organist, but people like putting you in boxes.’

There's an element of truth in the ‘unfortunate’ nickname, though, as Lapwood is very active on
social media. ‘This isn't something historically that the organ world has been particularly tapped
into, but it's a huge part of who I am because I love sharing and I love bringing people along on that
journey, because I think it's the best way for them to realise that the organ is quite a cool
instrument.’ Having developed a ‘thick skin’ after initially fielding ‘mean and unfair’ criticism for
‘cheapening’ herself by using social media in the way that she does, Lapwood says that she uses it
now because she both enjoys it and because it's a way of engaging with a new audience,
especially in the case of TikTok.

‘It's quite new for me still, but I've been getting to know the platform and I've seen that there are
millions of people on there who are genuinely interested in learning about random niches, and who
just like people talking passionately about what they do.’ For anyone who is yet to be sucked in,
TikTok is a short-form video based social media platform – it allows users to record, edit, caption
and share content to potentially millions of viewers. ‘I ended up on “thatched roof TikTok” the other
day,’ says Lapwood, ‘and got really into watching this guy talk about how to thatch a roof, which is
not something I ever thought I was going to find interesting.’ She adds, in all seriousness: ‘It means
that for something weird and niche like the organ, which has historically been a bit side-lined from
mainstream classical music, people can get really sucked into it and start to ask questions.’

A 10-second video clip watched to pass the time may not seem like a convincing means of
introducing young people to the organ, but as Lapwood says, ‘They might get sucked in by a “light”
video or a video about film music or something like that, but then they watch Bach videos and start
to learn more about the instrument and the repertoire, and then they come along to concerts. I just
think it seems like the future of classical music.’ Like most social media platforms, TikTok uses
algorithms to present you with content it thinks you'll be interested in based on your previous
interactions – the more roof thatching you watch, the more roof thatching you're going to get.

Culture shift

Aside from their ages, a noticeable similarity between Lapwood, Gillam, and Sheku Kanneh-Mason,
all MT cover stars this year, is the sense of responsibility they feel about paving a way and
improving the industry for those even younger than themselves. For Lapwood, this particularly
revolves around the representation of and opportunities for women and girls, although she is keen
to stress that ‘we need to make sure that if we're offering more opportunities for girls, it's not taking
anything away from boys’.

Lapwood is optimistic that a culture shift is already occurring in classical music, especially when it
comes to repertoire. ‘It requires some of us to push pretty hard in order to make that change
happen, but I think it has become totally normal for the next generation. It's quite funny; the girls in