Emily Vaughn

Emily Vaughn – Violin/Viola, (Faculty Member Since 2018): Emily Vaughn currently teaches private violin and viola students at the Music Academy of Western North Carolina in Hendersonville, NC. During the summer she serves regularly as a Faculty member for Western Kentucky University’s Summer String Institute. Mrs. Vaughn performs with Spartanburg Philharmonic, Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra, and Western Piedmont Symphony; 

Emily served as Principal Violist of the Johnson City Symphony Orchestra located in Johnson City, TN from 2021-2023.  She earned a Masters in Music Pedagogy from Western Kentucky University and Bachelors of Music in Viola Performance and Music Education from the University of Tennessee. Emily was awarded the Yates Scholarship to attend the UT School of Music based on her outstanding level of performance. While working on her Masters in Music Pedagogy, she became a faculty member teaching violin and viola at Western Kentucky University’s Pre-College Strings Program. Emily has taken several certification classes through the Suzuki Association of the Americas, learning the in’s and out’s of the Suzuki Method. In addition, she taught several violin group classes for WKU’s Violin Fest and Summer String Institute from 2015-2018. Emily assisted in directing student teachers and volunteers to teach violin to refugee children in Bowling Green, KY. 

Emily became a volunteer for the Daraja Music Initiative, a non-profit organization in Moshi, Tanzania, and assisted Dr. Ching-Yi Lin in initiating a beginning strings program for students of the Majengo Primary School in 2016. 

For four years, she served as an assistant at the UT Viola Celebration. In addition to her teaching activities, Emily is an active performer. She was awarded the UT summer research scholarship to study viola, orchestra, and chamber music intensively at Sewanee Summer Music Festival, and she is a graduate of the Viola Winter Intensive at the South Carolina  Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. She has performed in masterclasses with Dr. Juliet White-Smith, George Taylor, and Timothy Deighton. During her time at UT, she was the Assistant Principal for The University of Tennessee Orchestra, and the University of Tennessee Chamber Orchestra. Her principal teachers were Katie Dey, Hillary Herndon, and Andrew Braddock.