Mother and daughter team Liz Monks and Amy Wilson have become the latest LIPA 4:19 franchise owners. With the launch of their franchise Liz and Amy will provide singing, dancing and acting lessons to young people in their area of Yorkshire.

For Amy, who's previous job was developing script writing talent, launching her Leeds-based LIPA 4:19 was the fulfilment of a life-long ambition to be self-employed, she said: "After I was made redundant I wanted to find something that would rekindle the fire in my belly for performing arts and fit in with the demands of having two young kids. When mum presented me with the idea of opening our own stage school, I jumped at the chance."

Liz, who is a drama teacher, and Amy's sister had both studied at LIPA, where they learned about the franchise opportunity. LIPA has run a successful Saturday morning stage school in Liverpool for six years and is rolling its brand out across the UK. Former LIPA 4:19 students include Britain's Got Talent winner George Sampson.

Amy continued: "My mum and sister had a great experience at LIPA, so we knew how professional and sophisticated the teaching is. LIPA 4:19 shares the same ethos and in Liverpool it has a huge waiting list. When we heard about the opportunity to bring the brand to Leeds we knew we wanted to make it just as successful.

"Launching a new business is a huge challenge, especially when the country is just coming out of a recession, but we're feeling confident. The success of Glee and High School Musical has created huge demand for quality performing arts training. We're the new kids on the block in Leeds but, with the backing of LIPA, we're aiming high."

L-R Liz Monks and Amy Wilson

Published: 24 February 2010

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