[4] She has been a regular at the Arena di Verona[5] and other major theaters worldwide, singing a wide repertoire span, with a "voluminous and dark mezzo"[6] voice the dramatic Verdi roles such as Amneris in Aida, Eboli in Don Carlo, Azucena in Il trovatore and Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera, Wagner's Ortrud Lohengrin, Venus Tannhäuser, Fricka Die Walküre, Waltraute in Götterdämmerung and Strauss, Herodias in Salome and Klytemnestra in Elektra.

[9] Bernard Holland of The New York Times called hers "A voice of quality", which had "the presence and personality that might well fit the Met... a mezzo-soprano whose strong upper register gave hints of a dramatic soprano to come".

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).

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.

[20] 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,[21] Waltraute in Götterdämmerung[22] and Erda in Das Rheingold and Siegfried.

She made her Arena di Verona debut as Amneris in 2003[27] and returned there in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, and 2012 working with conductors Marco Armiliato, Placido Domingo, Daniel Oren, Vjekoslav Šutej and Piergiorgio Morandi.

Vaughn's "full-blooded Azucena" in Il Trovatorein a Stuttgart performance, "with her room-filling presence, her vocal flexibility and vibrant top is a powerful representation of this role.

Teatro Petruzzelli Bari (Aleksander Nevsky) under Julian Kovachev, Berliner Festspiele,[38] Elbphilharmonie Hamburg,[39] the Taipei Symphony under Roberto Abbado,[40] and the Kennedy Center (Missa Solemnis), She frequently performs Lieder and other recitals with partners such as Maris Skuja, Wolfgang Heinz, Lars Jönsson, Nicola Luisotti,[41] and Eytan Pessen at the piano.

Vaughn is active as a singing teacher and regularly gives masterclasses in Europe and the United States, including Dresden, Stuttgart, the Metropolitan Opera[49] New York City and North Carolina.