If you are a fan of Lord of the Rings, you should check out Anna Lapwood immediately. She is a British organist and has grown pretty popular for her movie score transcriptions, of which notable ones are from Pirates of the Caribbean, Interstellar, How to Train Your Dragon, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I find it so amazing how she can make the one instrument sound like a whole orchestra through different stops and harmonies between her feet and hands, and you can really feel the love and passion she has for her work in everything she plays. I have seen her perform live twice now, and both times Test Drive from HTTYD made me cry a little.
Anyhoo, this is important for LotR fans because she just premiered her Lord of the Rings symphony at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ, which houses the largest pipe organ in the world. I had the wonderful opportunity to see it live, and the piece blew me away. It was about an hour long, and it takes you on a journey through the entire story from the prologue of the ring’s origins to Aragorn’s crowning. Hopefully she will release it on Spotify someday, but until then everyone should go and try to see her in a concert to experience this wonderful piece of art! Until then, she has posted snippets of the symphony on her instagram that you can hear. Her “brief” synopsis of the films as told through the music was a joy to see as well.
I feel like the best pieces of art inspire you to want to create as well, and hearing her music really did that for me. After the concert, I was filled with so much energy and inspiration to paint, write, knit, play instruments, and of course read and watch LotR again.
Long story short, everyone needs to check out her work, whether that is on Spotify or seeing her in concert.
