© Eric Woolsey
Grammy award-winning mezzo soprano Tichina Vaughn has established herself internationally as an outstanding singing-actress, celebrated for her luxuriously rich voice as well as her electrifying stagecraft. She began her career as a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and made her European debut as Mistress Quickly in Falstaff at the Oper Stuttgart.
Highlights in recent seasons include La zia Principessa/Zita Il trittico (Welsh National Opera); The Witch Hansel and Gretel (Royal Ballet & Opera); Maria Porgy and Bess; Innkeeper Boris Godunov, Mére Jeanne Dialogues des Carmélites and First Maid Elektra (Metropolitan Opera); Emelda Griffith Champion (Boston Lyric Opera); Amneris Aida (Cincinnati Opera); and Maria Porgy and Bess (Teatro alla Scala, English National Opera, Dutch National Opera and Theater an der Wien.)
Tichina Vaughn has extensively performed roles by Verdi, including Amneris Aida (Arena di Verona, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Opera Hong Kong, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Detroit Opera, Seattle Opera, Tulsa Opera, and Michigan Opera); Azucena Il trovatore (Arena di Verona, Teatro Verdi di Trieste, Festival Arturo Toscanini Bussetto, Teatro Carlo Felice, Greek National Opera, Hungarian National Opera and the Sacramento Opera); and Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera (San Francisco Opera, Staatsoper Hamburg, Oper Graz, Teatro Lirico di Salerno, Teatro Massimo di Palermo, and Semperoper Dresden). She has also appeared as a guest soloist at houses including LA Opera, Finnish National Opera, Staatstheater Augsburg, Staatheater Kassel, Oper Frankfurt, Bregenzer Festspiele, and Opera Las Palmas.
As a principal artist at the Semperoper Dresden, her roles included Azucena Il trovatore, Venus Tannhäuser, Ortrud Lohengrin, Klytämnestra Elektra, Eboli Don Carlo, Orlofsky Die Fledermaus, Isabella L’italiana in Algeri, Suzuki Madama Butterfly, Herodias Salome, Cornelia Giulio Cesare, and Filipyevna Eugene Onegin. At the Oper Stuttgart she was awarded the title Kammersängerin for her successes in roles including Eboli Don Carlo, Azucena Il trovatore, Widow Begbick Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Venus Tannhäuser, Arnalta L’incoronazione di Poppea, Herodias Salome, Fricka Die Walküre, Waltraute Götterdämmerung and Erda Das Rheingold and Siegfried.
Her discography includes the Grammy-winning Metropolitan Opera recording of Porgy and Bess, Oper Stuttgart’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, and her solo portrait CD entitled Christmas at My House. Additionally, she appears on Schwanda the Bagpiper – Live from the Semperoper.
In addition to her title as Kammersängerin, Tichina Vaughn has received many awards and honors during her distinguished career including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Award, Opera Index Vocal Award, Robert M. Jacobson Study Grant, Birgit Nilsson Foundatin Award, Living Heritage Foundation Award, and the Consul General’s Award for Cultural Diplomacy from the Consulate General, Milan. In May 2023 she was appointed associate professor of music in voice at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
La zia principessa and Zita / Il trittico / Welsh National Opera / 2024
“As her judgmental aunt, delivering brutal news, Tichina Vaughn is superb.”
(The Times)
“As Angelica’s harsh guardian, the princess… Tichina Vaughn was chillingly good.”
(Opera)
“Tichina Vaughn was a rasping Zia Principessa and a grasping Zita.”
(Opera Now)
“…making a strong impression is Tichina Vaughn as Angelica’s unforgiving aunt, her rich contralto suitably imperious.”
(Opera Today)
The Witch / Hansel and Gretel / Royal Ballet & Opera / 2023
“Tichina Vaughn almost steals the show as the witch disguised as a kindly panto-dame at first to lure the children, and Vaughn has a lots of fun with the manipulative baddie.”
(Cultural Capital)
“American mezzo-soprano Tichina Vaughn, making her ROH debut, delivers a storming performance as the Witch, strongly sung and even more strongly portrayed…”
(Culture Whisper
Monisha / Treemonisha / Opera Theatre of St Louis / 2023
“As Monisha, mezzo-soprano KS. Tichina Vaughan was given some of the show’s highest profile moments, and she did not disappoint. Ms. Vaughan offered a stylishly sung The Sacred Tree, imbued with steady-voiced gravity; and her coy way with Treemonisha’s Bringing Up was sweetly deceptive as she disguises that she is Treemonisha’s mother.”
(Opera Today)
“As Monisha, mezzo-soprano KS. Tichina Vaughn’s debut with the company is spectacular. Her voice is exquisite, and her presence is dynamic and impossible to ignore.”
(ReviewSTL)
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