Why a Santa Monica Music Academy Chose to Expand into South Pasadena

When Manuel Lozano and his wife Gyllian decided to expand their music teaching business from Santa Monica two years ago, they scouted for spaces all along the South Bay, in the Valley and up to Westwood.

“We never fell in love with any particular location or community,” recalls Lozano, a sales and business development professional who helps his musician wife run the Green Brooms Music Academy, which has its grand opening today, Sunday, in a charming cottage on 803 Fremont Ave., next to the Carrow’s, with a special $10 “Music Lesson Day” from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. whose proceeds will benefit the Kidspace Children’s Museum in Pasadena.

Why South Pas? Why so far from Santa Monica?

As Lozano tells it, one of their instructors, Rebecca Carr, who lives in South Pasadena, showed the couple around town one weekend. “We spent a day here and fell in love with the community,” Lozano said. “We walked up and down Mission Street, Fair Oaks, and really fell in love with the whole environment.”

The Lozanos had never been to South Pas before. “I had no idea that there was a city called South Pasadena,” Lozano said. “I thought it was the southern part of Pasadena.”

The next day, Lozano found the craftsman-style house on Fremont that’s zoned for both residential and commercial. Classified as a historic building, it formerly was a law office. The Lozanos bought it in June and, after some renovation, repainting and heavy soundproofing to the walls, got the house ready for a full-fledged music school.

Most of Green Broom’s clients in Santa Monica, where they have about 375 students, live within a five-mile radius, Lozano said. “That’s really exciting for us in this location because we’ll be accessible to families here as well as in Alhambra, San Marino, Pasadena, Altadena, and potentially even some people who live downtown because the Gold Line station is only a block and a half away.

Named after an Irish ballad, Green Broom plans to start out with seven to 10 instructors in South Pas. A couple of them live locally; others will commute from Pasadena, Glendale, Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley.

“The fact that we’re so close to the Gold Line is going to be a huge benefit to our instructors,” Lozano said. 

Green Brooms Music Academy, 803 Fremont Ave., (626) 808-4031, www.greenbrooms.com.

Correction: An initial version of this article mistakenly named Denny's instead of Carrows as the neighbor to Green Brooms.