Joy Lapps: A steel pan musician passionate about bringing Afro-Caribbean sounds to the mainstream

Educator

Joy Lapps is more than just a musician — she is an educator who has merged her love of music with academia. Her work focuses on facilitating multi-modal teaching and learning that centres on the ensemble as a practice.

Joy helps arts educators and community organizations plan and execute new steelpan programs. Students across the Toronto District School Board and the York Region District School Board have been impacted by her work. She empowers educators to creatively engage students with the steelpan and meet curriculum goals through alternate, inclusive and anti-oppressive pathways. Joy also leads workshops and residencies with corporate partners including the Harbourfront Centre, the Toronto Public Library and Evergreen Brickworks.

Community Icon

Joy is an integral part of the steelpan movement in Ontario. She has served as artistic and creative director for her multidisciplinary project, From Skin 2 Steel and Beyond, a steelpan-focused community art project launched in Toronto. Joy has previously been honoured for her work in the community with the HUTTers Phenomenal Woman Award for Leadership in Community Arts.

Joy loves helping her community and has worked with Sistema Toronto, a local organization that provides after-school musical and intellectual programming to children in vulnerable areas of the city. As part of Arcade Fire’s 2022 Juno Awards performance, Joy directed the children of Sistema Toronto to accompany the legendary band on steelpan.

A Musician

Joy has performed alongside the likes of Stewart Goodyear, Roberto Occhipinti, Larnell Lewis and the Toronto Mass Choir, Elmer Ferrer, Jeremy Ledbetter, Johnny Reid and her musical mentor, pannist-composer Andy Narell. She has also recorded with Gramps Morgan, whose 2022 Positive Vibration release received a GRAMMY nod. 

A tribute to her versatility as an artist, Joy has appeared at the 2022 TD Toronto Jazz Festival, The Jazz Room, Mutahdi’s International Drumming Festival, Island Soul Festival, AfroFest, and McMaster University Concert Series. She has performed at Trinidad and Tobago’s Queen’s Park Savannah for Panorama Semi-Finals as well as at Lamport Stadium for Pan Alive with Pan Masters. Joy has also wowed audiences at the Brooklyn Museum with Pan Fantasy, a steelpan band from Toronto.

Girl in the Yard will be released on July 8th, 2022.

Joy previously released the following independent albums: