Sergio Navega's Informal Homepage

I also have a more formal homepage, for those interested in my technical background. 
If you are looking for Eduardo Navega (my brother) you may find him here.

So, you're curious enough about me to come here. Glad you came! This is that part of the web site where most people just lay down some personal thoughts. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to put much here, but I promise that from time to time I'll fill in the blanks. For now, this is what I've done.

Family

I'm a very happy married guy, with Sevani, and I have two children, Rafael and Amanda. Needless to say, they are the most important thing in my life. They're a bit shy, so I couldn't put a photo here. But I'm trying...

Music

I come from a family of musicians. My brother Eduardo Navega is currently the Conductor of Vassar College Orchestra. My other brother, Valter Navega lives in Milan (Italy) studying singing (he has a beautiful bass voice). My sister Vilma Navega resides in Brazil, along with my mother. I'm sort of the "black sheep" of the family, because my activities are not musical. But I had my time.

Around 1980, I started singing in one of USP's (University of Sao Paulo) choir (by the way, it was there that I found my wife, confirming that one of the best places to find your "life partner" is a choir). Soon I have discovered that I had a voice potential as a tenor. Then I studied singing for 2 years with Hercilia Block and then 4 years with Leila Farah, one of the best singing teachers of the planet. I almost started thinking about a career, as I was often told that I had a "good material" (I'm a lyric tenor, sort of in the middle of Pavarotti and Placido Domingo). But my passion for computers and science was greater, so I left singing. But from time to time I exercise a bit (mainly when I'm in my car driving in a highway, I avoid doing it at home because I'd bother all my neighbors). That pretty much ended my direct links with music so far.

But listening to music is only a headphone away. One of my preferred composers is Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), a russian (obvious!) composer that captured much of my music preferences (have you heard the last movement of his 7th symphony?).

Then it was time to know about the minimalism, a recent movement (about the 1970's) which is based on the continuous repetition of patterns. A big name in this area is Steve Reich (1936- ) which composed some of the most beautiful pieces I have. I like "The Desert Music" and also "Six Pianos", with its repetitive "ta ru tata, ta ru taruta" endless sequence. It is funny that minimalism demonstrates some of my cherished theories about the origins of human intelligence, that of recognizing repeating patterns and then noticing slight variations. Sometimes I use excerpts of Reich's music to illustrate this point in one of my seminars.

An even more recent composer, John Adams (1947- ), is another representative of this minimalist movement. His piece "Shaker Loops" is nothing less than impressive.

Out of minimalism, another piece that I like is Olivier Messian's "Quarted for the End of Time". In general, I don't appreciate chamber music, but this one has been recommended so emphatically by some musician friends, that I decided to give it a try. It is really fantastic. I also like Prokofiev and Ravel and Richard Strauss. On the "pop" side of the music chasm, I may listen to Mahavishu Orchestra and recently to the extraordinarily vivid and vibrant music of Linkin' Park.

Well, that's enough for now, maybe later I can put some more personal things in here.

Other links:

Selected Newsgroup Messages
Phrases
My Formal Homepage
Intelliwise Research and Training Homepage
Intelliwise Seminars (in English)
Intelliwise Seminars (in Portuguese)
Technical Reports
Article (in Portuguese) about the Seminars

Comments, suggestions, chitchat: snavega@attglobal.net