Musical phenom introduces an old instrument to new audiences

Amna Nawaz:

The pipe organ is typically associated with formal concert halls and church music, traditional works by Baroque composers like Bach.

But one musician is broadening the instrument's reputation and has gotten over a million people to tune in.

Our senior arts correspondent, Jeffrey Brown, with help from our friends at Maine Public, went to experience this in Portland. It's part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

(Music)

Jeffrey Brown:

A lone musician at the console of an instrument capable of enormous and enormously varying sounds, hands and feet flying across the keyboards.

Anna Lapwood, Organist:

Oh, my gosh, thank you so much for coming. I am so excited about this.

(Cheering)

Jeffrey Brown:

It's become a most unexpected phenomenon, playing out before packed audiences.

Anna Lapwood:

Hello. I'm here at the Sydney Opera House.

Jeffrey Brown:

And gaining large followings on social media.

Anna Lapwood:

I will give this baby Trader Joe's bag and it's the perfect size for my organ shoes.

Jeffrey Brown:

And for the traditional pipe organ, something big is happening, and Anna Lapwood is helping lead the way.

Anna Lapwood:

It's a novelty that people haven't been given the opportunity to understand, because it's been impossible to get them close enough.

But now, with social media, we can bring a million people close enough just through a phone. They come to the concerts. They come and they want to hear what you're talking about and they want to understand. And they have questions.

Jeffrey Brown:

They want to see it live and real.

Anna Lapwood:

And they want to feel it. They want to feel the room shaking.

Jeffrey Brown:

We got a glimpse of the Lapwood effect recently in Portland, Maine, as she prepared for the final performance of a U.S. tour playing the Kotzschmar Organ built for the city in 1912.

There's a lot going on here, right?

Anna Lapwood:

There's quite a lot going on, particularly an organ of this size, actually, because we have five keyboards, five manuals. You have got the full pedal board. You have all of the different stops -- these are called stops -- that control the sounds.

Jeffrey Brown:

Yes.

Ahead of the performance, she spent more than 18 hours registering the organ.

Anna Lapwood:

For every moment of the concert, you have to choose the sounds you want. You have to basically audition the different sounds, for this program, about 350 different settings, all of which have to be programmed individually.

Jeffrey Brown:

Yes. And this is a completely new organ for you, right?

Anna Lapwood:

It is.

Jeffrey Brown:

So, you are getting to know this instrument?

Anna Lapwood:

Every organ is totally different. It's a bit like sort of speed dating. You have to try and get to know the personality of the organ as quickly as possible and then figure out what that organ wants you to say with the music.

(Music)

(Cheering)

Jeffrey Brown:

Lapwood's classical music credentials, Bach and all, are impeccable. Now the official organist at London's Royal Albert Hall, she was the first female organ scholar at Magdalen College in Oxford, later director of music at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

She tried many instruments in childhood. Somehow, it was the organ, which she sometimes refers to as a machine, that offered a new kind of connection to audiences and more.

Anna Lapwood:

It is a way to connect with them, but I think, for me, it's been a way to connect with myself and figure out who I want to be on stage.

Jeffrey Brown:

What does that mean?

Anna Lapwood:

I feel the most free, natural version of myself. I feel so much more free than I do in normal life, to be perfectly honest. It is the freest version of myself on stage, because it's the music, which is just like a glove in my mind. It is just me.

Jeffrey Brown:

When you're playing, do you feel yourself part of the machine or...

Anna Lapwood:

I just feel like my body has suddenly expanded and this living thing around me is part of me.

Jeffrey Brown:

And it was her own love of movies and film scores that offered a way to reach new audiences.

Anna Lapwood:

The thing I give the biggest credit for the shift in how people perceive the organ is the film "Interstellar." Suddenly, people hear the organ in a totally different context. They hear the beauty of it. They hear the sensitivity of it.

If you count how many times a day you hear the "Interstellar" soundtrack scrolling on TikTok or Instagram, everyone knows that music. It has brought the organ front and center into public consciousness.

Jeffrey Brown:

The popularity she's gained has also led her into some unexpected places, performing with contemporary artists from other musical genres, including a collaboration with the electronic musician Bonobo.

Man:

Toccata and Fugue in D minor.

Anna Lapwood:

They heard me practicing at came on stage. They were like: "This is so cool. Wouldn't it be cool if we included the organ in our set tomorrow?"

So I ended up joining the show with no notice. And it was so far outside my comfort zone. I had no idea what I was getting myself in for.

Jeffrey Brown:

Yes.

Anna Lapwood:

And then there were these soaring strings, and I just started crying. The wool had just been pulled from over my eyes, and I went, oh, my gosh, the musical world is about 70 million times larger than I'd ever imagined it could be.

No one knew I was going to be doing it, and the crowd just erupted.

(Cheering)

Jeffrey Brown:

Clearly behind all this, Lapwood's personal effervescence, love of her instrument...

Anna Lapwood:

"Lord of the Rings." This is the biggest project I have ever done.

Jeffrey Brown:

... and desire to communicate directly with her audience, including regular posts of behind-the-scenes of her life and work and middle-of-the-night rehearsals, often the only time she can access these special and unique instruments.

It's paying off with more than four million followers across platforms.

Is that a phenomenon that still surprises you?

Anna Lapwood:

All the time.

Jeffrey Brown:

All the time?

Anna Lapwood:

I still -- it's so strange. I always say there's like Anna Lapwood and there's Anna, right?

Jeffrey Brown:

Who's here with me?

Anna Lapwood:

Somewhere in the middle, I think, probably a little mix.

Jeffrey Brown:

Yes.

Anna Lapwood:

I try to bring as much as I can over, and I think there's something that people like about that, because it feels like it gives them permission to be the most authentic version of themselves as well.

Jeffrey Brown:

The Portland concert had ticket holders come from 43 states and four foreign countries.

Anna Lapwood:

Hello.

Woman:

Hi. Can I give you a hug?

Anna Lapwood:

And she greeted many of them for more than two hours after the concert ended.

Man:

She just exudes this enthusiasm.

Woman:

Hi.

Anna Lapwood:

Hi. How are you?

Woman:

I'm fine. And you?

Man:

Her energy, it's just magnetic.

Anna Lapwood:

Well, come this way. Come this way. Come this way, yes, yes.

Woman:

The way she lights up, she's so entertaining to watch.

Jeffrey Brown:

Lapwood's growing audiences online and in halls around the world are more than happy with what and how she's playing.

(Music)

(Cheering)

Jeffrey Brown:

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in Portland, Maine.