The Valkyrie Ensemble

The Valkyrie Ensemble will empower women in opera by supporting female-identifying classical musicians and taking charge of the female operatic narrative through producing updated versions of the operatic canon and highlighting new works by female composers. The organization will support female artists by cultivating opportunities for networking and mentorship, and eventually providing paid performance opportunities. The Valkyrie Ensemble will further its mission to empower women through opera by engaging with women's organizations to provide outreach performances, dress rehearsal invitations, and post-performance talk backs. The need for an organization of this mission is clear. In Chicago, while there are several organizations working to empower women in the arts, the operatic community is lacking such advocacy. The repertoire of the art form possesses significant gender disparity in opportunities to begin with, exacerbated by the fact that almost 75% of voice program graduates are women, so that women especially at the start of their careers face fewer opportunities in addition to less pay. Add on to that the general abuse and mistreatment of women in operatic plots, and we can see that the need to advocate for the promotion of women in opera is essential to keeping the art form relevant. Opera in its inherent nature has always created a platform for the female voice to not only be heard, but celebrated, and for this innate reason makes it the perfect art form to further support and explore the cause of women’s empowerment.