Musician

Navida sings, is an excellent violinist and plays the piano. She has used her musical abilities on stage in shows like Cowgirls and A Christmas Carol. She is comfortable singing Schubert, Sondheim, Mozart or Menken.

As a violinist, she plays in the Queer Urban Orchestra and the 92nd Street Y Community Orchestra but can also do some mean fiddling and play a heartbreaking Irish ballad.

The piano plays an important part in her role as a teaching artist in schools and community centers as she sings songs and tells stories. She uses the piano/keyboard as an extension of her storytelling artistry.

She is fortunate to have grown up in a musical family. Her parents were passionate amateur classical musicians. Instead of bridge night, Navida’s parents would invite like-minded friends over to sing madrigals and chorales and play recorders. She remembers sitting on the stairs in her pajamas listening to the strains of a Buxtehude Cantata waft up from the living room! All her brothers and sisters played stringed instruments. She played a lot of string trio music.

At Western Illinois University, Navida studied violin with Doris Preucil and Almita Vamos, voice with Marietta Dean and received a BA in music. She continues to regularly study voice and take musical theater classes in NYC.

 

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