The well-worn flight path between the UK and Australia has seldom felt so fraught. As military action and drone strikes bring havoc to Middle Eastern airspace, routes have been redrawn and touring schedules thrown into disarray. For the British organist Anna Lapwood, preparing for her Australian debut, the past week has been a whirlwind of recalculation.

“I was meant to be flying in via Doha,” Lapwood says. “The situation is just mad, isn’t it? It’s horrible, really. Thinking about all the people who are stuck there … I just can’t imagine how scary that is.”

After days of uncertainty and her manager “on the phone constantly”, she eventually secured seats on a flight to Kuala Lumpur, then on to play dates in Melbourne and Sydney.

“I’m very relieved that I’m actually definitely coming now,” she says. That sense of relief is shared on this side of the world too – especially by the Melbourne Town Hall and Sydney Opera House, which are handing Lapwood the keys to two of the world’s most formidable musical instruments.

Anna Lapwood. Portrait © Nick Rutter

After playing dates in...