Opera National Council Auditions in April 1989. She made her stage debut at the Met in 1990 as a member of the Young Artist Program singing under Nello Santi, John Fiore and James Levine. Vaughn's first leading role was Amneris in Verdi's Aida at the Seattle Opera in 1992. This success prompted invitations for Aida from Detroit Opera (1993), Opera Pacific (1995), Tulsa Opera (1997), and Hong Kong Opera Society (1997), and established her as a young Verdi mezzo-soprano. Additional Verdian leading roles in the early years included Princess Eboli in Don Carlos in Seattle (1993), and the Requiem in Santiago, Chile (1992), Buenos Aires (1992), and San Antonio Symphony (1993). International career Since the late 1990s Vaughn has worked internationally. Singing mostly mainstream Italian repertoire, Vaughn added numerous roles in German. Boris Gruhl wrote of her Klytemnestra in Elektra, "The manner in which she expresses (Klytemnestra's) nightmares is deeply harrowing. She has the right timbre for the tragedy of the guilty queen, and her scenes of desperate loneliness make her a tragic partner for Elektra." Vaughn's Venus in Tannhäuser at the Hamburg State Opera "bewitched her minstrel with her charmingly sensual, powerful mezzo and her personal charisma. Even in her short appearance in the third act, one could feel the presence of her strong personality." Her "superbly dramatic Herodias" in Salome became a signature role in Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Dresden. From 1998 to 2006 Tichina Vaughn was principal artist in the ensemble of the Staatsoper Stuttgart where she made her European debut as Mrs. Quickly in Verdi's Falstaff in August 1996 and was awarded the title of Kammersängerin in 2006. Roles performed included Azucena in Verdi's Il Trovatore conducted by Nicola Luisotti, and Arnalta in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea conducted by Nicholas Kok, Eboli in Verdi' Don Carlo, Widow Begbick in Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Venus in Tannhäuser, Giulietta in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, Fricka in Wagner's Die Walküre, Waltraute in Götterdämmerung and Erda in Das Rheingold and Siegfried. Her discography in Stuttgart includes the Stuttgart Opera Ring cycle filmed for DVD distribution by Euro Arts and recorded for Naxos. From 2010 to 2018 Vaughn was a principal artist in the ensemble of the Semperoper where she was heard as Azucena conducted by Daniel Oren, Venus conducted by Asher Fisch, Ortrud in Wagner's Lohengrin, Herodias, Eboli, Jezibaba in Stefan Herheim's production of Rusalka,