Music school steps up, eyes int'l accreditation

CEBU, Philippines - Underpinning Cebu’s positioning as the “Creative City” in the Philippines, the Salonga School of Rock is on its way to complete is requirements as the first music school in Cebu to be certified by the Rock School of UK (United Kingdom) in the field of pop and rock.

Salonga School of Rock director Pia Chiong-Quisido announced that with this move, Cebu will be able to be known in the worldwide scene as a legitimate producer of professional musicians, world-class singers, while rich of raw talents abound in Cebu.

This move, according to Quisido will raise the bar of Cebu’s position as “Creative City” proclaimed earlier by the British Council.

“We got a lot of very good raw talented singers and musicians. They should be honed professionally in order to make good use of their talents may it be in the local or international scenes,” said Chiong- Quisido.

Although Cebu has been able to produce successful singers and musicians (bands), the absence of internationally-certified educational channel to formalize their talents is one of the hurdles why most of them do not succeed and maximize their potential.

Chiong-Quisido, together with husband Erwin, established the “Salonga School of Rock”, an affiliate of the legendary Salonga Music Center, about two years ago in order to provide professional training to talented Cebuanos.

“There’s so many young talents in Cebu. There’s musicality in them. We give them proper training especially for those who want to make music their profession, and those who want to play in a band and succeed,” said Chiong-Quisido.

The school offers several modules to students regardless of age, these include; voice and stage performance, lessons in drums, keyboard, electric and base guitars, violin, among others, while adopting modernize approach in teaching.

After the school completes its requirements to be certified by the Rock School of UK, the Salonga School of Rock will also be sending its music teachers for experts’ training and get them certified, Chiong-Quisido said.

If the certification will be completed, Salonga School of Rock will be the first music school in Cebu, if not in the Philippines, to be given an international standard certification, similar to that of ISO (International Standard Organization) certifications given to corporations in different industries.

UK’s Rock School is reportedly Europe’s number one rock music exam board.

“This is our contribution to Cebu, being proclaimed as the ‘Creative City’. We believe that there is unlimited supply of raw talents here, they should be given proper training and professional education,” she said.

Moreover, its effort to be certified in the UK School of Rock is also seen to strengthen credibility of Cebu as one of the largest producers of artists, musicians, singers. “Now, we have the international credibility because of the standard that we will be adopting through the certification. Although, we have already proven to the industry our capability of producing good talents, this will also give us an edge over other rock music schools in the country.”

Aside from its walk-in music inclined students, and raw talents, Salonga School of Rock is also offering institutional music education training to schools, through the schools “Music Clubs” such as its recent partnership with Paref Southcrest Cebu and University of San Carlos Montessori.

In early 1990’s when Cebu tried to promote its own music industry, through the “Local Ground” campaign, Chiong-Quisido established her own band as she played as the lead singer of the then Cebu’s famous girls band called “Feminine Mode”.

One of her frustrations, she said is the inability of most of Cebu’s talented individuals to make it in the “real” entertainment world both nationally and internationally, because of lack of confidence and training credibility.

With the support of her husband, Chiong-Quisido opened the “Salonga School of Rock” located at the Cardoc Building at the Maxilom Avenue (in front of the old Sacred Heart for Boys School), with capitalization of P500,000 in 2011.—(FREEMAN)