Internationally lauded artist, speaker, educator and creative consultant Joy Lapps activates spaces for community building and creative expression. The award-winning instrumentalist of Antiguan and Barbudan descent treats the steelpan as a tool for engagement, anchoring her artistry in a profound, community-centered musical tradition. She aims to amplify women’s contributions in every facet of her work, giving nuanced attention to women of the steelband movement. 

 At her core, Joy connects to music as participatory. The Toronto native has performed alongside Stewart Goodyear, Roberto Occhipinti, Larnell Lewis and the Toronto Mass Choir, and recorded with Gramps Morgan, whose 2022 release Positive Vibration received a GRAMMY nod, Elmer Ferrer, Jeremy Ledbetter, Johnny Reid and her musical mentor, pannist-composer Andy Narell. As a leader, Joy has appeared at music festivals and events across Canada and the US including Montreal International Jazz Festival, the Victoria, Edmonton, Halifax Jazz Festivals, Miami’s Ground Up Fest, Mundial and Folk Alliance. As a part of steelbands, she’s performed at the Queen’s Park Savannah for Panorama Semi-Finals with Birdsong Steel Orchestra, Lamport Stadium for Pan Alive with Pan Masters and Pan Fantasy, Le Petit Journal Jazz Lounge with Calypsociation and at the Brooklyn Museum with Pan Fantasy. 

 To date, Joy has issued five independent albums: How Great Thou Art (2004), Make a Joyful Noise (2006), It’s Christmas Time (2007), Morning Sunrise (2014) and Girl In The Yard (2022). She is set to release The Caribbean Christmas Mixtape Vol. 1 (November 2024) with her partner and longtime musical collaborator Larnell Lewis. Her repertoire teems with Afro-Caribbean- and Afro-Brazilian-inspired rhythmic and harmonic patterns, garlands of melody and plenty of space for spontaneity, and a fondness for hit song forms and reimagined choirs emerges frequently in her compositions. 

 Joy focuses her academic work on facilitating multimodal teaching and learning that centers ensemble as a practice. Her university pedagogy and varied community education programming integrates ensemble teaching to promote individual and collective success. She stays active in diverse arts organizations. From 2017 to 2019, she served as Artistic and Creative Director for her multidisciplinary project From Skin 2 Steel & Beyond, a steelpan-focused community arts project launched in Toronto. 

 A lifelong scholar, Joy has received her IBBA Honours Degree from the the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto; her Master of Arts in History, Development and Composition for Steelpan in the Jazz Ensemble at York; internship placement at Calypsociation Steelband music school in Paris, and the Royal Conservatory of Music and OAC Arts Education Foundation; and lessons from diverse creative improvisers. Joy earned the 2014 Dr. Alice E. Wilson Award to support graduated studies from the Canadian Federation of University Women; the 2015 Caribbean Music and Entertainment Award as Top Steelpan Soloist from PenPro Productions; the 2016 HUTTers Phenomenal Woman Award for Leadership in Community Arts, 2023 Toronto Arts Foundation Muriel Sherrin Award and 2024 Pan Arts Network Women in Pan Award.

Following the release of The Caribbean Christmas Mixtape Vol. 1, Joy plans to share a new research- and interview-driven multidisciplinary project she’s been developing that spotlights women’s contributions to the steelpan community. Follow Joy on social media at @JoyLappsMusic.