Nana Gaskins Vaughn is in high demand as a freelance musician and teacher in the Mid-Atlantic region. As a violist, she plays regularly with the Baltimore Symphony, Washington National Opera, and National Symphony, performing with some of the world's most renowned conductors and musicians. She has performed as principal viola with Baltimore Choral Arts, Postclassical Ensemble and Opera Italiana, and is currently assistant principal viola with the Reading Symphony, and a violist with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Vaughn has performed as a soloist with the Carmel and Richmond Symphonies in Indiana, the latter where she served as principal viola for fourteen years. Canceled due to the global pandemic, she was also slated to perform with the Tongyeong International Music Festival Orchestra in Tongyeong, South Korea in spring 2020.
Ms. Vaughn performed in the orchestra for the 2022 Kennedy Center Honors attended by President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and other dignitaries. Among the musicians she accompanied were Stevie Wonder, Yo-Yo Ma, Billy Porter, Paul Simon, and Denyce Graves. She has also played in concert with the Moody Blues, Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, and the Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience at Capitol One Arena in Washington DC. Nana's chamber music partners have included members of the National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra. She has performed frequently on the Washington Musica Viva chamber recital series and in 2016, she performed at the Iraqi Embassy in a quintet with Grammy-nominated musician Rahim Alhaj. Most recently, she performed on-screen in a small ensemble in the documentary, Avenegar, featuring the composition of Dr. Reza Vali. The film was the subject of a screening and panel discussion at UCLA in 2022.
A passionate educator, Vaughn founded Violin2Viola, a series of international online workshops sponsored by Shar Music that are designed to help violinists who would like to learn more about teaching and/or playing the viola. In her role, she has presented online workshops with colleagues Karin Brown and Renate Falkner, and in-person for the Baltimore Symphony Academy. This summer, Violin2Viola will be in residence at Luzerne Music Center and Tanglewood Institute (BUTI). Ms. Vaughn has served on several boards and committees, currently serving on the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras Advisory Council and the board of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Musicians Foundation.
At the college level, she is currently Adjunct Applied Faculty in Viola at Dewberry Family School of Music at George Mason University and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Viola at Sunderman Conservatory at Gettysburg College. She has taught violin and viola, and String Methods at Elizabethtown College in PA, and frequently coaches violin and viola sectionals for Georgetown University. Previously, she was an Adjunct Professor and Affiliate Artist at University of Maryland Baltimore County, where she taught Arts in Education, String Methods, Instrumental Music Methods, directed the Summer String Institute, and supervised student teachers. She also taught applied violin lessons at Purdue University.
A National Grammy Educator Quarterfinalist, she taught a string program for Howard County Public Schools, where she taught using an innovative combination of traditional school orchestra methodology with elements of teachings from the Suzuki, Paul Rolland, and Mimi Zweig philosophies and practices. During her time there, she was recognized as a distinguished educator, mentored student teachers from Peabody Conservatory, and received a Howard County Gifted and Talented Educator Award. As a member of the Howard County Music Educators Leadership Team, she helped plan professional development sessions for her teaching colleagues.
Ms. Vaughn's pre-college private violin and viola students have achieved great success, having been accepted into nationally prestigious programs such as the National Youth Orchestra 2, Interlochen Viola Intensive, Boston University Tanglewood Institute Junior Strings Intensive, Luzerne Music Center, and All Eastern Orchestra, as well as local programs such as Maryland All-State, Howard County GT Orchestras, Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras, and Peabody Youth Orchestras.
Vaughn's work as a clinician and adjudicator at the high school and college level has been in high demand. Baltimore County Public Schools has invited her to present a total of six professional development sessions for their music educators. A frequent adjudicator for high school music festivals in Maryland, she has been an adjudicator for county and state solo and ensembles, and All State. She has served as a violin and viola coach for the Georgetown University Orchestra in Washington D.C., Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras, Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras, and high schools across the region.
Her pre-college private violin and viola students have achieved great success, having been accepted into nationally prestigious programs such as the National Youth Orchestra 2, Interlochen Viola Institute, Boston University Tanglewood Institute Junior Strings Intensive, and All Eastern Orchestra, as well as local programs such as Maryland All-State, Howard County GT Orchestras, Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras, and Peabody Youth Orchestras. She also helps aspiring music majors in their college music audition preparation. Her students have received scholarships to attend top music conservatories and colleges in the country, including Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and University of Maryland.
As a music administrator and entrepreneur, she founded the Fishers (Indiana) Chamber Orchestra in 2005. A member of the executive committee of the Fishers Cultural Alliance, she was a principal participant in the development of the Town of Fishers' Master Plan for Arts and Culture. In gratitude for their contributions toward the arts, the Fishers Town Council made a proclamation of "Michael and Nana Vaughn Day" in 2009 to honor them. Nana also served as Executive Director for the Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestras and oversaw its merger with the Baltimore Symphony's Education department, becoming the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras. Nana's resume includes her complete experience.
Ms. Vaughn's father was an amateur, self-taught guitarist from West Virginia and her mother comes from a family of musicians in Okinawa, Japan. She spent most of her childhood in Carmel, Indiana and earned her Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance and Master of Arts in Teaching degrees at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she studied violin with Paul Biss, viola with Atar Arad, and chamber music with the late Rostislav Dubinsky. After college, she has had additional studies with Choong-Jin Chang, principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
With her violinist husband, Michael, she is a proud parent of three young adults: Anya Vaughn, a masters animation student at Rochester Institute of Technology; Braden Vaughn, a masters student in timpani and percussion at The Juilliard School; and Mira Vaughn, her studio teaching assistant and a senior viola major at Cleveland Institute of Music.
Nana performs on a 1980 d'amore style viola made by Hiroshi Iizuka.
Ms. Vaughn performed in the orchestra for the 2022 Kennedy Center Honors attended by President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and other dignitaries. Among the musicians she accompanied were Stevie Wonder, Yo-Yo Ma, Billy Porter, Paul Simon, and Denyce Graves. She has also played in concert with the Moody Blues, Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, and the Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience at Capitol One Arena in Washington DC. Nana's chamber music partners have included members of the National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra. She has performed frequently on the Washington Musica Viva chamber recital series and in 2016, she performed at the Iraqi Embassy in a quintet with Grammy-nominated musician Rahim Alhaj. Most recently, she performed on-screen in a small ensemble in the documentary, Avenegar, featuring the composition of Dr. Reza Vali. The film was the subject of a screening and panel discussion at UCLA in 2022.
A passionate educator, Vaughn founded Violin2Viola, a series of international online workshops sponsored by Shar Music that are designed to help violinists who would like to learn more about teaching and/or playing the viola. In her role, she has presented online workshops with colleagues Karin Brown and Renate Falkner, and in-person for the Baltimore Symphony Academy. This summer, Violin2Viola will be in residence at Luzerne Music Center and Tanglewood Institute (BUTI). Ms. Vaughn has served on several boards and committees, currently serving on the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras Advisory Council and the board of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Musicians Foundation.
At the college level, she is currently Adjunct Applied Faculty in Viola at Dewberry Family School of Music at George Mason University and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Viola at Sunderman Conservatory at Gettysburg College. She has taught violin and viola, and String Methods at Elizabethtown College in PA, and frequently coaches violin and viola sectionals for Georgetown University. Previously, she was an Adjunct Professor and Affiliate Artist at University of Maryland Baltimore County, where she taught Arts in Education, String Methods, Instrumental Music Methods, directed the Summer String Institute, and supervised student teachers. She also taught applied violin lessons at Purdue University.
A National Grammy Educator Quarterfinalist, she taught a string program for Howard County Public Schools, where she taught using an innovative combination of traditional school orchestra methodology with elements of teachings from the Suzuki, Paul Rolland, and Mimi Zweig philosophies and practices. During her time there, she was recognized as a distinguished educator, mentored student teachers from Peabody Conservatory, and received a Howard County Gifted and Talented Educator Award. As a member of the Howard County Music Educators Leadership Team, she helped plan professional development sessions for her teaching colleagues.
Ms. Vaughn's pre-college private violin and viola students have achieved great success, having been accepted into nationally prestigious programs such as the National Youth Orchestra 2, Interlochen Viola Intensive, Boston University Tanglewood Institute Junior Strings Intensive, Luzerne Music Center, and All Eastern Orchestra, as well as local programs such as Maryland All-State, Howard County GT Orchestras, Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras, and Peabody Youth Orchestras.
Vaughn's work as a clinician and adjudicator at the high school and college level has been in high demand. Baltimore County Public Schools has invited her to present a total of six professional development sessions for their music educators. A frequent adjudicator for high school music festivals in Maryland, she has been an adjudicator for county and state solo and ensembles, and All State. She has served as a violin and viola coach for the Georgetown University Orchestra in Washington D.C., Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras, Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras, and high schools across the region.
Her pre-college private violin and viola students have achieved great success, having been accepted into nationally prestigious programs such as the National Youth Orchestra 2, Interlochen Viola Institute, Boston University Tanglewood Institute Junior Strings Intensive, and All Eastern Orchestra, as well as local programs such as Maryland All-State, Howard County GT Orchestras, Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras, and Peabody Youth Orchestras. She also helps aspiring music majors in their college music audition preparation. Her students have received scholarships to attend top music conservatories and colleges in the country, including Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and University of Maryland.
As a music administrator and entrepreneur, she founded the Fishers (Indiana) Chamber Orchestra in 2005. A member of the executive committee of the Fishers Cultural Alliance, she was a principal participant in the development of the Town of Fishers' Master Plan for Arts and Culture. In gratitude for their contributions toward the arts, the Fishers Town Council made a proclamation of "Michael and Nana Vaughn Day" in 2009 to honor them. Nana also served as Executive Director for the Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestras and oversaw its merger with the Baltimore Symphony's Education department, becoming the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras. Nana's resume includes her complete experience.
Ms. Vaughn's father was an amateur, self-taught guitarist from West Virginia and her mother comes from a family of musicians in Okinawa, Japan. She spent most of her childhood in Carmel, Indiana and earned her Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance and Master of Arts in Teaching degrees at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she studied violin with Paul Biss, viola with Atar Arad, and chamber music with the late Rostislav Dubinsky. After college, she has had additional studies with Choong-Jin Chang, principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
With her violinist husband, Michael, she is a proud parent of three young adults: Anya Vaughn, a masters animation student at Rochester Institute of Technology; Braden Vaughn, a masters student in timpani and percussion at The Juilliard School; and Mira Vaughn, her studio teaching assistant and a senior viola major at Cleveland Institute of Music.
Nana performs on a 1980 d'amore style viola made by Hiroshi Iizuka.