American mezzo-soprano Tichina Vaughn will make her LA Opera debut as Frugola in Il Tabarro and La Suora Zelatrice in Suor Angelica. In 2006 the Ministry of Culture of the Baden-Württemberg region of Germany awarded her the title of Kammersängerin of the Stuttgart State Opera. The singer continues to establish herself as an artist of excellence performing on some of the most important stages in Europe and America, singing guest performances at the San Francisco Opera, the Hamburg State Opera, the Semperoper Dresden, the Teatro Filarmonico and the Arena di Verona, the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, the Teatro della Muse in Ancona, the Teatro Verdi Trieste, the Festival Arturo Toscanini in Bussetto, the National Opera Hong Kong, the opera houses of Michigan, Seattle, Orlando and Tulsa. Her portrayals of Azucena, Ulrica, Amneris, Mrs. Quickly, Eboli and many others are hailed by the critics and the public as electrifying.

Thanks to her rare versatility, Tichina Vaughn is also very much in demand for the German repertoire. She was Herodias at the Canary Islands Music Festival Las Palmas, Erda in Das Rheingold and Siegfried at the Finnish National Opera, in Kassel and in Augsburg. She sang Waltraute in Mannheim, Widow Begbick in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in Stuttgart and Bremen, and Venus at the Stuttgart State Opera.

Her discography includes the Stuttgart Ring cycle, filmed for the Euro Arts distributed DVD, in which she performed Fricka in Die Walküre and Waltraute in Götterdämmerung. In 2005 her first solo CD "Christmas At My House" was released at Animato.

While still a student at the North Carolina School of Arts, Tichina Vaughn was named a winner of the Metropolitan Opera Studio National Council Auditions. Upon receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree, she was immediately invited to become a member of the Metropolitan Opera Studios. She made her debut on stage at the Met in Porgy and Bess and sang roles in La Traviata and Rigoletto. She had her first performances in Europe as a soloist at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz. She has been awarded numerous prizes among them the Metropolitan Opera Award and the Richard Tucker Study Grand Award.

In concert, Tichina Vaughn can regularly be seen on all the important stages with such renowned conductors as Mstislav Rostropovich, Nicola Luisotti, Bobby McFerrin, Daniel Oren and many others.

Highlights of future seasons include Azucena in Il Trovatore at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa and Eboli in Don Carlo at the Frankfurt Opera House.