[6] Marchena is some 30 miles (50km) from Seville, but in its province and geographically near enough[7] to justify the epithet Hispalensis, which appears on the title page of his 1590 Roman publication (below).
Navarro sang as a tenor in the choir of the Duke of Arcos in Marchena (by 1549, when Cristóbal de Morales was chapel-master), then in the cathedrals of Jaén and Málaga.
In 1553 he competed for the position of maestro de capilla in Málaga left vacant by the death of Morales, a competition won by Francisco Guerrero.
[9] He left Salamanca after striking the chaplain and succentor, Juan Sanchez, in the face during Vespers on New Year's Eve 1573,[10] and became chapel-master in 1574 at Ciudad Rodrigo and then Palencia in 1578, where he remained till his death and where he was buried.
Navarro's compositions include two hymn cycles, one written in Avila (1565) and preserved in manuscript there, the second published posthumously in Rome (1590) as part of the 350-page collection of "Psalmi, Hymni ac Magnificat totius anni ... , for four, five, and six voices.