Nina Kiken, performer, teacher, plays viola throughout the region as a chamber and orchestral musician. In the 2025–2026 season she performed at MoMA PS1, the Music Center at Strathmore, Kennedy Center, Anthem, DAR Constitution Hall, Capitol One Arena, Schlesinger Concert Hall, Baltimore Museum of Art, and Maryland Center for History and Culture.

Recent festival appearances include the Smithsonian Academy Orchestra, SummerTrios, Hamptons Festival of Music, Spoleto Festival USA, Lake George Music Festival and St. Barts Music Festival. As an orchestral musician, Nina regularly performs with symphonies in the area including the Baltimore Symphony and the Washington National Opera Orchestra.

Nina is viola faculty at Towson University, and maintains a pre-college studio at George Mason University. She previously served as the teaching assistant to Jeffrey Irvine and Lynne Ramsey at the Cleveland Institute of Music and was Assistant Professor of Violin and Viola at SUNY New Paltz. Her research interests include the history of American string pedagogy, interdisciplinary perspectives on performance and development of proprioceptive skills in string-playing.

Nina earned her Doctorate of Musical Arts at the Cleveland Institute of Music. She completed her undergraduate degree at Northwestern University with Roland Vamos while playing in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.