On Monday 30 January - 10 years to the day since LIPA's inauguration - nearly 250 LIPA students and graduates will take part in a gala performance at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall.The performance will also herald the official launch of Liverpool Performs 2006 - a 12-month celebration of Liverpool's outstanding track record in the arts, sport and business - the latest in a series of themed years leading up to European Capital of Culture in 2008.
LIPA itself is one of the city's best known success stories, committed to its aim of providing high-quality teaching to prepare students for sustained careers in the industry, either as performers or those who make performance possible. Currently, 1,250 people are taught at LIPA each year.
Sir Paul McCartney, co-founder of LIPA, will be taking part in a joint press conference to mark the event. He said: "I always feel great pride in LIPA - sheer pride in the students and their talent. The dream we had to save my old school and turn it into something really worthwhile has happened. I find it very moving."
Cllr Warren Bradley, leader of Liverpool City Council, said: "It is extremely fitting that we launch Liverpool Performs on the tenth birthday of LIPA - a national institution which is now a standard bearer for the way the new Liverpool invests in and trains talent to enable people to perform at the highest level. Liverpool Performs 2006 will be a year-long celebration of the city's tremendous achievements in the field of performance. The programme for the year includes the first artistic works to be produced by the Liverpool Culture Company which will appear under the theme of City in Transition (CiT), taking inspiration from the tremendous changes currently taking place in the city. It promises to be an action-packed 12 months."
Key events for 2006 include the launch of 08 businessconnect - a new Capital of Culture business forum designed to help local companies get involved in the build-up to 2008; Liverpool's first Disability Sports Festival; the Open Golf Championship returning to Royal Liverpool for the first time in nearly forty years; and the fourth Liverpool Biennial International Festival of Contemporary Art.
Mark Featherstone-Witty, LIPA's founding principal and chief executive, said: "For Paul McCartney and myself, this is a moment we could only but imagine 10 years ago. We remember when we had to describe and enthuse people about a reality that didn't exist. Now 10 years on we have one of the highest application rates of any UK Higher Education Institution (HEI). People come to us from some 38 countries and make up a third of our student body - the fourth highest percentage of any HEI in the country. For me though, it is the graduates' achievements that make me most proud. With three-quarters of any leaving year still traceable still working in the arts and entertainment economies three years after leaving. As Churchill once said, 'It's the end of the beginning'."
(Lee Baldock)
