Music school rises in Leyte to soothe souls

MANILA, Philippines—Knowing that music can soothe the soul, an educator has put up a music school in typhoon-ravaged Tacloban City in Leyte.

Michelle Nikki Junia, president of Musikgarten Phil. Inc., said it was putting up a Tacloban branch, its first in the Visayas. Musikgarten, she said, is a leading early childhood development program in the United States.

“Music is second nature to the Warays. I know this because my father comes from Tolosa, Leyte,” Junia said.

Junia’s involvement with Leyte after Super Typhoon Yolanda struck on Nov. 8 last year began the following day. She connected 20th Century Fox, the movie outfit represented by Casey Neistat, with the victims in Leyte.

The story of the arrival of the 20th Century Fox group with Neistat in Leyte went viral in the US and Europe and surprised Junia.

“I did not know that the two Americans who came to my studio for help to bring relief to the victims were from 20th Century Fox,” she said.

“At the time, I was on top of efforts to bring food and relief to our family in Tolosa, our hometown. We had a relief delivery system going two days after the typhoon, ahead of government relief efforts,” she said.

She said her cousins from all over were burning the wires to make things happen.

“We had a young doctor, a cardiologist, in the family who was always there to provide medical advice. We had an immediate head count of family members in distress and moved the senior citizens to safer ground.”

Bringing Musikgarten to Tacloban was the next step in the family’s effort to contribute to rebuilding lives after the super typhoon that claimed over 6,000 lives, she said.

“This Tacloban branch is in partnership with my relatives,” Junia said, adding that this was the second branch to open this year, with the first opening in San Pedro, Laguna. Last year a branch was opened in Baguio City. Four more branches are slated to open this year.

Musikgarten is a music school for all ages. It offers regular Musikgarten classes for kids up seven years old and individual music lessons for young children up to senior citizens.

Junia said the idea to put up a music-based early childhood development school in Tacloban was inspired by student-victims of Yolanda who were on temporary stay in Manila. There were seven of them from three families who enrolled at the Musikgarten branch in Robinsons Galleria on Edsa and Ortigas Avenue.

“But, of course, I was in the thick of relief operations for my family and I knew that the repair of lives and the economy in the damaged areas was a work in progress and we wanted to be a part of that,” she said.