On one of the corners of Madrid’s Plaza de Olavide stands a shop with a red façade. Music from pianos and trumpets drifts through its windows. The entire Chamberí neighbourhood – and many residents from other districts – recognise it because it has been on that corner. the cornersince 1996: it is the Popular School of Music and Dance. Thousands of students have discovered there what the treble clef is and sung their first songs in the choir. For others, like Laura, it has served as a springboard to make the leap to the College for Music and Theaterthe music university in Hamburg (Germany). Laura attended the Popular with her sisters, Elena and Carmen, because her parents, Ingrid and Marcos, had done so before her.
Now, the school that has seen generations of musicians grow up is disappearing almost thirty years after its opening. Promociones Algara Gómez, owner of the building that houses the Escuela Popular de Danza y Música, has decided to end the rental contract for the school. Patricia and Nydia, directors of the centre, assure that the real estate agency’s intention is to sell it to make tourist apartments. Promociones Algara Gómez insists to El PAÍS that “they are within their rights” to put the building up for sale, although at the moment there is no buyer, so it is unknown what the premises and the apartments will be used for. The directors assure that they will continue to fight to avoid the closure and have called a rally for next Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. In the video that heads this news, Laura and her family tell EL PAÍS how they are living their last days in The popularthe school with the soul of a neighborhood.
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