I was told to play like a man, says leading BBC organist
A BBC broadcaster has revealed she was provoked into battling gender bias in music after being told to play the organ “more like a man”.
Anna Lapwood is an organist and the youngest ever music director at Cambridge’s Pembroke College, regularly appearing on Radio 3 and presenting her own BBC show.
The 24-year-old believes gender disparities pervade the world of organ playing, and she herself was urged to play like the older men who predominate.
She said she is patronised “the whole time” for being a woman, and reluctantly wants to bang “the gender drum” to rid her industry of the attitudes she has faced.
Ms Lapwood broke into a largely male sphere after taking up the organ at 16, and was offered the first ever female scholarship for the instrument at Oxford’s Magdalen College.
She believes that being young, female and a “mould-breaker” can act as an inspiration for other aspiring musicians to overcome the attitudes she faced pursuing her passion.
“At a big organ-competition when I was 19, a judge told me I needed to play more like a man,” Ms Lapwood told Radio Times magazine.
She added: “I don’t want to make a name for myself as someone who bangs the gender drum. But there’s an immense sense of responsibility towards the next generation who need a role model.
“If it weren’t for that, I would’ve stopped two years ago because the way people talk can get to you.”
The rising star, who has her own BBC Cambridgeshire show, admits that she is concerned with the attitudes of her detractors.
“The majority are on board,” she said. “There are exceptions, and as those are the ones whose opinion I almost value most, I find it so difficult that they don’t approve.”