Navida is always interested in the intersection of telling a great story while examining a social issue. Her solo show “Urban Zen” looks at the conflict in this technological age of paying attention and resisting distraction. “Daddy, Me & OCD” explores mental illness and her latest solo piece, “Pandemic Mosaic” is filled with poetical portraits of New York City residents living through our unprecedented times.  Her adaptations bring words of great American writers from the page to the stage and include “The Willa Cather Salon” based on Willa Cather’s first short stories and her life as a long time Greenwich Village resident. Navida’s newest play “The Best is Yet” written for a diverse cast wrestle with the definition of family and the imprint of traumatic childhood memories. She is also a published poet.

 

As an accomplished classical violinist, Navida plays with the Queer Urban Orchestra and the 92nd Street Y Community Orchestra. She is also a singer and at home with classical and musical theater repertoire and often plays the piano keyboard in her work as a Teaching Artist.

 

As a dedicated musical storyteller and teaching artist, Navida Stein (aka Miss Navida) is committed to bringing traditional stories, music making and family visual art workshops to underserved populations in community centers, schools, parks, and libraries. She has written many children’s songs that are used in the early childhood & special needs classrooms. These Miss Navida songs are short, use vocabulary that connects to the curriculum, have a movement/gesture component, and often work with a particular concept or theme. For the past decade her big hits have been “My Little Orange Pumpkin” and “The Little Boat” and teachers continue to sing these songs long after Miss Navida has finished her residency.

Her areas of expertise include early childhood, special needs students, crafting curriculum with an emphasis on Social & Emotional Learning skills, nurturing literacy and fostering community through family arts programs. Her Motto is CONNECT and CREATE.

 

Navida is a long time Iyengar yoga practitioner, lives in a New York City studio with her husband, a piano, several violins, drums and rhythm instruments and many books.