Sunderman Conservatory of Music

Nana Gaskins Vaughn, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Viola at The Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College, is in high demand as a freelance musician and teacher in the Mid-Atlantic region. A passionate educator, Vaughn founded Violin2Viola, a series of international online workshops sponsored by Shar Music that are designed to help violinists learn to play and teach the viola. At the college level, she has taught at Georgetown University, Elizabethtown College, University of Maryland Baltimore County, and Purdue University.

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 served as principal viola with Postclassical Ensemble and Opera Italiana, and is currently assistant principal viola with the Reading Symphony, and a member of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. She performed in the orchestra for the 2022 Kennedy Center Honors attended by President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and other dignitaries. Nana's chamber music partners have included members of the National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra. Vaughn has performed frequently on the Washington Musica Viva chamber recital series and most recently, 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.

Ms. Vaughn 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. She resides in Ellicott City, Maryland and performs on a 1980 d'amore style viola made by Hiroshi Iizuka of Media, Pennsylvania.