In the hallways of this massive building, it wouldn’t be surprising to come across the new Harry Potter of the series. Anyone who says Harry Potter can perfectly say Hermione Granger, the young woman from the band of wizards in JK Rowling’s literary saga. She could be one of those girls who just came down the stairs and is singing like she’s at a concert. Harry Potter could be a disheveled boy with glasses who runs away with his shiny trumpet because he’s late for class. “Nobody gets bored here,” explains Blanca de Artega, a 22-year-old Spanish student, smiling as she comes home from her composition class.
This building is the Liverpool School of Performing Arts, better known by its English abbreviation LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts). A complex in the heart of the Beatles’ city that looks like a kind of Hogwarts, the school of witchcraft and wizardry known from the Harry Potter books and films. Like this castle, this space is a constant bustle with nearly 1,000 students studying everything from instrumentation, composition and production to management skills, negotiation and creating an artistic image via social networks. Here you learn everything about the music industry, but also everything that has to do with the world of the stage: there are courses in acting, dance, costumes, design, lighting, video camera, sound engineering… There are no lessons in flying Broom, but almost. The instruments sound so much and so well in so many classrooms that sometimes you feel like you’re flying.
A student walks down a school hallway. Manuel Vazquez
“We’re going to explode again,” says Tim Pike, the school’s music director, during rehearsal with an orchestra. Pike plays multiple instruments and serves as teacher and public relations for this place, where instruments, seats and spotlights can be seen in the corners. This Brit acts as a guide through this maze of doors and corridors that lead to courses of all kinds… and none of them require you to look at a board from your desk. A door opens and five boys stand in a dark room playing around with a mixing board. Another opens and several dancers dance between mirrors. The opposite side opens and there are several students in 19th century clothing rehearsing the performance of “Spectres,” the play by playwright Henrik Ibsen. “Our whole goal is to be a place where creativity is encouraged,” says the musical director.
A student in an acting class.Manuel Vázquez
The fact that the Harry Potter of the stage emerges from this school is no idle talk. If the walls of the building could talk, they could say it: Paul McCartney and George Harrison studied here as children. Two Harry Potters of pop, for the continuation of the idea of wizard children. “The building was the same, but in the 1950s it was a high school,” explains Sean McNamara, director of LIPA. “The fact that this place has a real connection to the Beatles makes it even more special,” he adds. In fact, the art school where John Lennon studied is right across the street. “We’re talking about training artists, and so real stories in real places create real… and special environments,” he says.
Music production class. Manuel Vazquez
There is no lack of reason. The birth of LIPA itself is special. McCartney had known since 1985 that the building that housed his former institute was abandoned after it closed and he wanted to find a productive use for it. For his part, the educator Featherstone-Witty had founded the Brit School in London, where Amy Winehouse and Adele studied, and was looking for an opportunity to open another center in another city. McCartney and Featherstone-Witty met through George Martin, the Beatles’ famous producer. They began the project of this school, whose facilities were inaugurated in 1996 after seven years of work and an investment of £20 million. Queen Elizabeth II attended the opening ceremony. “McCartney comes at the end of each class to hand out diplomas and take photos with the students. It is our main pattern. He would be some kind of frontman. “Like a symbolic president,” emphasizes its current director.
Paul McCartney, supporter of LIPA, pictured with a group of students.Brian Roberts (LIPA)
Black and white photographs of Paul McCartney hang in the school bar. Also others from the Beatles, Bob Dylan or Jimi Hendrix. In fact, the ghost of the Beatles seems to roam this building like a ghost from the opera. Three of them give their name to three essential rooms: the Paul McCartney Auditorium, a classic theater with double chairs, red carpet and beautiful seats; the John Lennon Auditorium, a classroom with wooden benches and a large stage, and the George Harrison Studio, a white, open space where acting is taught.
A teacher from the center speaks to the students. Manuel Vazquez
The John Lennon Auditorium is a meeting point for one of the LIPA projects linked to Spain. This is the annual cooperation program with the Society of Artists, Performers or Performers (AIE), which since 2000 has allowed a Spanish musician to reside for a few days with students of the center to rehearse their songs and tour England and Spain . “This collaboration represents a unique and completely unprecedented musical and educational project in the field of performing arts and vocational training within the European Union,” says Carlos Igual, responsible for promoting AIEnRuta Cycles. Musicians such as Carmen París, Javier Ruibal, Depedro, Coque Malla, Zahara, Julián Maeso, Jacobo Serra and Maika Makovski, whom McCartney met on her first day of residency, took part in this program. The last participant was Tulsa. “Getting together with these guys will intoxicate my music,” Tulsa says. “Normally I don’t use wind instruments or choir singers, but in this collaboration I do. For me it’s like when Chillida said he had the challenge of painting with his left hand, which he never used. I challenge myself to make my music with them.”
Live musical performance. Manuel Vazquez
This exchange program is one of LIPA’s pride, as Tim Pike recognizes: “We like to think that stimulating things happen in this building because people interact outside the classroom and with people from all over the world.” Director Sean McNamara adds: ” When students come for the first time, one of the things we do is invite them to talk about their culture. We always end up talking about food and then we have wonderful get-togethers where everyone brings food from their homeland and shares it at a picnic at school. The richness of sharing food is the preamble to the richness of sharing knowledge.”
Rest time between class and class. Manuel Vazquez
Blanca de Artega, who is in her second year studying composition and acting, brought Spanish food with her and integrated herself in her first year. “The talent here is stupid. I went to a school like this in London and it was completely different,” he explains. “It had a good reputation, but people didn’t relate to it and didn’t care. There was no professionalism. Here it is exactly the opposite. Now I have a performance and thanks to the involvement of my colleagues, who are very close to my heart, I already have the songs, the choreography and the costumes.” Blanca is referring to the performance at The Tube, the concert hall next to the bar, where on Fridays a student defends his musical suggestion. On Wednesdays there is an open mic evening and on other days there is a jukebox evening, a live karaoke with a student band as accompaniment. There are also theater performances. Something is always happening.
According to the LIPA director: “Our spirit has a lot to do with the spirit of the city.” Beyond the Beatles – and football – Liverpool is a cultural stronghold. McNamara emphasizes that this city is the city with the most museums and art galleries in the United Kingdom after London. In addition to these offerings, there are dozens of clubs with live music. “Liverpool is different not just because of the Beatles, but because it is a metropolis that attracts a variety of musicians who want to play on the streets or in bars. Our motto is, ‘Get out there and find out,’” explains McNamara.
Trial lesson for contemporary dance. Manuel Vazquez
Going out and exploring is what LIPA students do. Alonso Muñoz, a 21-year-old Mexican, wanted to come to this city because it is “very musical.” He studies production and sings some amazing rancheras, but what interests him is knowing the secrets of the city. Alonso had to prepare an essay in a class on “understanding the local scene.” Miriam Hernández, an 18-year-old Spanish woman, took part in this rehearsal and had a lot of fun. “We toured the stages of Liverpool and interviewed managers and musicians,” he remembers. Miriam came to this school after ruling out attending Berklee College of Music, the largest private music university in the world: “It has a better name, but it’s more expensive and more crowded.”
A classical dance lesson in the bar.Manuel Vázquez
You cannot enter LIPA without first auditioning and interviewing. Like many performing arts schools, undergraduate and postgraduate degrees charge high fees. Each course at LIPA costs around 2,000 pounds per month (approx. 2,300 euros). The school awards 55 scholarships annually and has approximately 1,000 students from 48 countries. Almost 25% of students come from outside the UK. “Everyone who arrives does so with the conviction that they will become a professional. There are students who form bands and end up getting record deals and giving concerts. Many of our alumni are professional theater professionals. More than 120 students worked at the last Eurovision Song Contest,” explains McNamara. LIPA has produced names such as Mike Crossey, producer of the Arctic Monkeys’ first EP, and Liam Lynch, who directed the film Tenacious D. Also other musicians like Seun Kuti, The Wombats, The Staves and Fickle Friends. The headmaster highlights designer Jenny Beavan, winner of an Oscar for the costumes in the film The King’s Speech.
A student in front of a mixing desk. Manuel Vazquez
Students continue to move from one place to another. “You are not my enemy; Your name is, your name alone. “You are you and you are not a Montague,” a girl recites to a boy as they both sit on a staircase. It is a dialogue from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Past and present merge in this building, where it sometimes feels as if the photographs of musicians and actors, like those in the paintings at Hogwarts School, come to life. Because in its own way, this building, in which Paul McCartney and George Harrison took their first steps, also exudes a magic of its own.
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