Merrill Hall, MU104A
American mezzo-soprano Tichina Vaughn is associate professor of music in voice at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
As an active voice teacher and mentor, Vaughn has been artist-in-residence at her alma mater, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and serves as artistic advisor for SAS Performing Arts Company and faculty clinician with Opera Programs Berlin.
Celebrated for her “superb, rich singing” and serious “theatrical presence,” the Grammy-winning Vaughn began her international operatic career as a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Program.
Recent successes include her debut at the Welsh National Opera as Zia Principessa and Zita (Il Trittico) under Maestro Carlo Rizzi, her Royal Opera House Covent Garden debut as the Witch (Hansel and Gretel), and Azucena (Il Trovatore) for Piedmont Opera, as well as returning to the Metropolitan Opera as the Hostess of the Inn (Boris Godunov) and roles in Poulenc’s Dialogues de Carmélites, R. Strauss’s Elektra, and the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.
Further international engagements have included appearances with Maestro Alan Gilbert at the Lucerne Festival in Porgy and Bess and her debut at the Opéra National de Lyon as Old Lady (Candide).
In North America, Vaughn recently appeared as Amneris (Aida) at Fort Worth Opera and Cincinnati Opera and made her Opera Theatre of Saint Louis debut as Monisha in a new production of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha.
Internationally, Vaughn made her Italian debut as Azucena at Teatro Verdi in Trieste. For 10 seasons, she was a regular guest as Amneris in Aida at the Arena di Verona and was heard at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Teatro Carlo Felice Genova, Festival Arturo Toscanini Busseto, Teatro Massimo Palermo, and Festival Veneto, among others.
From 2010 till 2018, she was an ensemble member at the Semperoper Dresden, where she was heard as Herodias (Salome), Azucena (Il Trovatore), Venus (Tannhäuser), Ulrica (A Masked Ball), Ortrud (Lohengrin), Eboli (Don Carlo), Clytemnestra (Elektra), and Witch (Hansel and Gretel), among other roles.
From 1996 to 2006, Vaughn was a principal artist at the Stuttgart State Opera, where she was awarded the title of Kammersängerin for her success in such roles as Eboli (Don Carlo), Azucena (Il Trovatore), and Widow Begbick (Mahagonny), alongside others. Further international engagements have included performances in Europe’s most prestigious opera houses.
Highlights in North America include appearances with the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, Boston Opera, and Sacramento Opera, among others. Her concert performances have included appearances with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Symphony, and many others.
Vaughan’s discography includes the Grammy-winning Metropolitan Opera recording of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Stuttgart State Theater’s Der Ring Des Nibelungen, and her solo portrait CD, Christmas at My House. She also appears on the release Schwanda the Bagpiper–Live from the Semperoper.
In addition to her honorary title of Kammersängerin, Vaughn has received the Metropolitan Opera National Council Award, Richard Tucker Foundation Study Grant Award, Opera Index Vocal Competition Award, Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation Award, Birgit Nilsson Foundation Award, and Consul General’s Award for Cultural Diplomacy from the Consulate General in Milan.