Award-winning instrumentalist of Antiguan and Barbudan descent, Joy Lapps treats the steelpan as a tool for community engagement. Her work aims to amplify women’s contributions, particularly in the steelband movement. The Toronto native has collaborated with Stewart Goodyear, Larnell Lewis, Gramps Morgan — whose 2022 release Positive Vibration received a GRAMMY nod — Elmer Ferrer, Jeremy Ledbetter, Johnny Reid and mentor Andy Narell. As a leader, Joy has appeared at Lula Lounge, Toronto Jazz Festival, The Rex, The Jazz Room, Mutahdi’s International Drumming Festival, Island Soul Festival, AfroFest, McMaster University Concert Series and Autumn Leaves on Steel; as 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 Fantasy, Le Petit Journal Jazz Lounge with Calypsociation and at the Brooklyn Museum with Pan Fantasy. 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). Her repertoire teems with Afro-Caribbean- and Afro-Brazilian-inspired rhythmic and harmonic patterns, and plenty of space for improvisation; a fondness for funk and pop song forms emerges frequently in her compositions. She received her MA from York University, and has earned the 2014 Dr. Alice E. Wilson Award and the 2015 Caribbean Music and Entertainment Award.