Sunderman Conservatory of Music

Nana 那奈 Gaskins Vaughn is a violist and violinist who regularly performs with the Baltimore Symphony, Washington National Opera, and the National Symphony Orchestra. She is assistant principal viola of the Reading Symphony and principal viola with Opera Italiana at the Lincoln Memorial, American Contemporary Classical Orchestra, and Baltimore Choral Arts.

She has appeared in the Kennedy Center Honors orchestra accompanying artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Stevie Wonder, Cynthia Erivo, Billy Porter, Paul Simon, and Denyce Graves, performing for audiences including President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. A founding member of the Chateau Four piano quartet, the ensemble brings classical music to new audiences through performances in unconventional spaces and creative collaborations with artists of all disciplines.

Nana’s teaching has reached students at every level. She has served as Adjunct Applied Faculty at George Mason University’s Dewberry Family School of Music and is currently Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Sunderman Conservatory of Gettysburg College. She maintains a very active private studio in Ellicott City, Maryland. Her precollege students have been accepted into leading programs such as National Youth Orchestra, Interlochen, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Luzerne Music Center, and All Eastern Orchestra, as well as university programs. Young adult students have been accepted into programs such as the National Symphony Orchestra Summer Institute and Chautauqua Institute Summer Festival. Students she has coached have advanced in auditions with top tier major orchestras.

She is the founder of Violin2Viola, a Shar Music sponsored workshop series designed to help violinists learn to play and teach the viola. She has led these workshops both online and in person for organizations including the Baltimore Symphony Academy, Luzerne Music Center, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. She has also been invited to teach on the viola faculty of the Saarburg International Music Festival in Germany.

Nana is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Viola at Gettysburg College’s Sunderman Conservatory and founder of Violin2Viola, a Shar Music sponsored workshop series for violinists transitioning to viola. She performs on a distinctive d’amore style viola made by Hiroshi Iizuka in 1980.