This was nearly a catastrophe. Maura Nava, as she goes on YouTube (Navarrete is her full surname), was filming herself practicing El Majo Discreto (The Discreet Lover), Enrique Granados’ classical Spanish piece, when her cat jumped into the frame. If you look at Maura’s expression 8 seconds in, you can see that she is not impressed at all.
Both Maura and Maximino are lucky that Maura is such a cat lover. Judging from Maura’s face, for a second it looked like Max the Persian cat was about to be catapulted off the table with max intensity. Instead, Maura gave him a gentle nudge, inadvertently causing Max to face the camera. Within seconds Maura breaks into a smile then starts laughing.
What changed Maura’s response to Max’s intrusion? As Maura was preparing to sing her next line of Spanish opera, Max cut in with contrapuntal Persian miaowing. Max is a persistent and imaginative interpreter of song. Maura did her best to stifle her laughter lest she interrupt the feline maestro. The video was filmed nearly eight years ago, when Maura, who is in her mid-twenties, was a teenager, but was posted on TikTok in August 2022. Max’s stint in front of the camera has 8.5M views on TikTok.
After the video went viral, Maura Nava said that Max loves music, and the only way she can get Max to follow her is by whistling his favourite tunes. She added that Max is a very vocal cat who screams when he wants something. Mexican-born Maura is a soprano who recently graduated from the University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas, with a degree in music ed and vocal performance. A year into her first year of teaching middle school, she needed a pacemaker fitted. Here is her new video:
The title of the piece, posted on 2 June 2023, translates as Angelic Music – Connect with You. It it subtitled: A short singing meditation from my heart to yours. Watching the video, one can’t help thinking the song is a meditation inspired by Maura’s recovery from the emergency heart surgery she had in May 22. It is a very beautiful piece of music.
Maura funded her surgery with a successful, now closed, Go Fund Me campaign. On her Go Fund Me page she states that she was born with third degree heart block. “That means my heart was electrically disconnected and could not sustain a body for long. Miraculously, I lived to be 24 years old before an emergency when I was surgically implanted with a pacemaker (an electric device that keeps my heart beating). … This surgery has given me a new chance.”
It was while recovering that Maura posted old videos, including that of Max interrupting her opera-singing practice. I can’t help thinking that the TikTok fame Maura Nava gained from her video with Maximino helped her GO Fund Me campaign. It’s a good thing that when Maura nudged him in the video, Max took it as an invitation to take centre stage rather than a reason to take offense and wonder off.
Max subsequently appeared on a number of other videos on Maura’s TikTok account. On 23 March 2023 Maura posted on TikTok that Max was being veterinary hospitalised to investigate his kidney troubles. On TikTok, fans are asking for updates on Max, but nothing seems to have been posted.
Maura is currently based in Miami, Florida, US.
From The Music Man, good luck with your health Maura Navarrete. If you would like to see more from Maura Nava, you can subscribe to her YouTube channel.