How music school in Mandaue helped Sheena Belarmino, John Clifford

At the mezzanine outdoor area of Parkmall in Mandaue City, there's a music school that displays a poster with the slogan: "The Stars of Tomorrow Start Here.

- By JANUAR JUNIOR AGUJA

It's not some PR drive to get aspiring singers recruited to Music n Motion Academy. You'll see from their poster that they really did develop some well-known talents, such as Sheena Belarmino, John Clifford, and P-pop group BILIB member Rafael Mumar.

They have also trained those who would later compete in reality singing competitions such as “It’s Showtime’s” regular segment “Tawag ng Tanghalan,” “The Voice Philippines,” and “Idol Kids Philippines.”

“I wasn’t the one who came up with that slogan, but it was from a parent of one of my students,” the school’s founder, Leonyl Navarro, told The FREEMAN. “I thought it was being too confident, and I would tone it down. But the parent was insisting as a declaration for people to know what my school was capable of.”

Navarro, 42, founded Music n Motion Academy in 2014 at J Center Mall (now SM JMall), where his students performed at a benefit concert to raise funds for victims in Northern Cebu affected by Super Typhoon Yolanda.

Impressed by their performance, the mall’s former marketing manager suggested that he hold a summer voice workshop at the establishment.

Navarro was then a freelance music tutor with many mentees, gaining recognition for his time as a former voice coach at the Cebu branch of the Center for Pop Music Philippines.

He was a passionate musician, having been a dancer for his alma mater, the University of San Jose-Reflectors, a member of the drum and bugle corps, and part of a church choir.