Zoe Lapwood loves her music. She lives down stairs in the family home with a piano, guitar, and her organ.
Her room is plastered with posters of her favourite bands.
A year-13 student at St Paul’s Collegiate in Hamilton, Lapwood, 17, is busy taking part in the school’s kapa haka group, orchestra and annual celebration of music production.
However, Lapwood’s musical career as a singer-songwriter and pianist is showing promising.
In recent years she has won songwriting competitions, performed at gigs in Auckland with four-piece band Inner Light and this year was awarded an Adastra scholarship.
Later this year she plans to produce her first CD of original work plus a music video to accompany one of her recent songs.
In 2014 she performed in a tribute concert to the Beatles held in the Auckland Town Hall.
On Wednesday and Thursday she was back in the Town Hall for A Strange Day’s Night, a
tribute concert to the Rolling Stones, bringing her vocal skills to The De Sotos. She performed with the band in the Best of British a Queen’s Birthday weekend event on Queen’s Wharf.
Organised by the Play it Strange Trust, A Strange Days Night is designed to allow up and coming Kiwi performers to work with established bands along side well known music industry names.
Lapwood became involved with the Play it Strange Trust after two of her songs were recorded and put on its compilation CDs.
‘‘This opened the doors for me to become a member of Inner Light, led by Geoffrey Chunn and we have performed to audiences in and around Auckland.’’
Lapwood is also a volunteer with Star Jam, a group which helps provide entertainment opportunities to people with disabilities and has been assisted by the Adastra Trust which provides scholarships and mentoring to help young performers onto the national and international stage.
Lapwood’s future may not all be about music, she wants to study law and accounting at Waikato or Auckland universities.
