World-renowned musician brings 'pipe dream' to Boardwalk Hall

British musical phenom Anna Lapwood takes to the landmark stage of Boardwalk Hall on Friday to play the loudest musical instrument in the world as part of her U.S. tour. 

The building will resonate to the resounding call of  tens of thousands of pipes within the walls of the midtown jewel home to the largest pipe organ on the planet. 

And largest by a lot! 

The organ Lapwood normally plays has just shy of 10,000 pipes. Our organ has more than 33,000 and a trumpet sound that is six times louder than a locomotive. No wonder its nickname is Poseidon. 

Although the instrument’s renovations are currently at 65 percent, it will debut a freshly finished harp section tonight. 

This is quite fitting. As Lapwood landed on studying the harp before giving it up to focus on becoming who the New York Times calls “the world’s most visible organist.” 

Please don’t give it a second thought that the instrument is aways from full capacity. The sound that blast from this behemoth dwarfs even the most powerful  subwoofer next to you at a red light on Atlantic Avenue. 

Nor worry that organ  music is old-fashioned and not up with the times. Because Anna’s 700K TikTok followers would beg to differ. 

Don’t look for Anna to be sitting at a slot machine while she is in town. The 28-year-old has hardly left the organ bench since she arrived here. 

She explained to me that she only has 19 hours of registration time (the technique of combining organ stops for a particular sound). 

BreakingAC was invited to interrupt Lapwood’s rehearsal  (and lunch) for a few moments to speak with her about this incredible art form.

BreakingAC: Take us through how you started your musical journey.

Anna Lapwood: I started with piano when I was probably about 4. There was a lovely, little old lady in the village who taught everyone piano. I gradually got this addition to trying new instruments. I would save up my pocket money and go to the thrift shops and find bugles or guitars and get a book and teach myself. I was always addicted in the “breath” of music as opposed to wanting to specialize. That led me to the harp. I was set on being a harpist. Then one day my mom said, "Organ scholars at Oxford and Cambridge get grand pianos in their rooms.” And I said, "OK, I’ll take up the organ."

BAC: So you did it to get a piano in your room? 

AL: Yeah. And so that was the thing that made me take it up. I found it really, really, really hard at first. I didn't fall in love with it instantly at all. But I think that made me more determined to figure out how to do it. 

BAC: Am I correct to think that you're the type of person that you could pick up any instrument and get some type of clean sound out of it?

AL: I think I would struggle with brass. My older brother was basically allocated all the brass instruments. But otherwise, yeah.

BAC: How did you finally settle on the organ professionally? 

AL: I chose to give up the harp when I was in the second year of my job at Cambridge. That was a really hard, painful decision. The realization that I couldn't do everything. Combining a full-time job with working as a professional musician was hard enough without trying to keep up two instruments.
I started doing harp concerts where I was not happy with my playing anymore. Because it's slipping away from me. I could have gone another direction. But ultimately I saw the potential in the organ and the potential to be creative with it, write my own arrangements and try to put my stamp on the instrument.

BAC: Do you think most people associate the organ with a little old lady playing for church? 

AL: It's about the showing people that there are all sorts of different people playing the organ. I think it's amazing that there's a little old lady playing in her church. I think it's amazing that you get the little kids playing now. We need to show everyone that there's everyone playing in between.

BAC: Where’s the Mecca of the pipe organ?

AL: Paris has a load of amazing instruments. Really, really amazing. But every country has its own little distinctive style. I have to say that in America the organs are so much bigger. I do enjoy that because it means that there's a lot of colour to play with and a lot of different sounds to play with. 

BAC: When you're unwinding, what do you listen to? 

AL: I mostly listen to jazz when I'm not working. I love Melody Gardot. I've loved her since I was about 15. I always put her on when I'm doing the washing up. I love her and Samara Joy and just vintage jazz. 

BAC: Do all your friends expect you to play for their weddings?

AL: My friends are really good about the whole wedding thing. Because I've said to them I would really prefer to be there as your friend and to be able to feel emotionally involved in the whole experience without worrying about the playing side of things and wanting to make it absolutely perfect for you. They're really understanding about that. I see it as quite important to have a little bit of separation.

BAC: What is the current state of the pipe organ community? 

AL: Some people say that it's a dying breed. I disagree with that. I think you just have to look at the young people who are so excited about playing the organ and the young people who are so excited about coming to organ concerts. I played at Northrop in Minneapolis a couple of days ago and it was like it was sold out and there were kids there. There were teenagers. It was a whole mix. I think that's partly because I use social media to get people in and partly because the music I play.
Because it's not just the classics, it's film music and things like that. I think it is an unusual instrument. There's no two ways about it, right? It is weird. It is a little bit strange for a lot of people whose only experience will be sitting in a church and hearing the instrument come down at them without being able to see the player. So, it can feel like a different world already. So we have to therefore work even harder to show people no, no, no, no, come on in. Come and have a look. Sit on the organ bench. Try pressing a key. You have to be open like that. 

BAC: Where are you trying to take the art of the pipe organ? 

AL: I am just trying to follow what feels right in my heart with the instrument, experiment, take risks and think outside the box. Be a little bit crazy perhaps, and just try new things and think what could this instrument do that we haven't yet done with it? Ask how far can we push it in trying to get it into popular culture? Who can we collaborate with to raise the profile of the instrument? Because I think collaboration is absolutely key to bring in different audiences from different  enres. Sure. 

BAC: So if Taylor Swift goes through another breakup, are you going to get on the phone and say, "This song calls for an organ solo"?

AL: It’s an instrument that moves everyone. I've done gigs where it's a massive sound stage and it's super, super loud for the whole show. And then the organ comes in. It's like the sound goes from 2D to 3D. Everyone goes, "Whoa," because they feel it in here (pointing to her gut). That's the beauty of the instrument. 

BAC: How do you like playing this organ on a 1 to 10? 

AL: It's like 50. I admit I was intimidated coming in, even though I've played it before. You sit down at it and you say “Oh my God, where do I start?” But then you just you sort of move past that and you remember that it's just about trying to bring the best out of the instrument.

BAC: Does bigger necessarily make it better?

AL: Not necessarily. But with this one, it does make it better. It’s definitely the best organ I’ve ever played. 

BAC: Do you take requests? Can you play a little Journey on Friday?

AL: We’ll see (she laughed).