"The power of pivots and possibilities."
That phrase is the cornerstone of the creation and formation of The Virtuosa Society — a society which will be comprised exclusively of female creatives — sprung from the imagination of Katie Harman Ebner: professional singer, mother, military spouse, local communitarian, and former Miss America of 2002.
The Spark — A Master's Recital
The inspiration to create the collaboration of creatives came to Katie during the preparation for her master's recital at Southern Oregon University in 2016.
She realized through research and 20 years of work with voice instruction, collaboration with symphony orchestras, operas, and theater companies, that all but one of her performances had been composed by a man.
That realization — about the absence of female composers in the standard performance repertoire — became the seed for what would grow into The Virtuosa Society.
The Vision
"Their dreams — there is no straight path if you desire to network, grow as an artist, be a mother, a wife, and possess big dreams. I want to bring a complimentary cultural space where women can grow." — Katie Harman Ebner
The Virtuosa Society is being designed as a comprehensive support ecosystem for female creatives — not just a performance space, not just a networking group, but a home base for women whose lives include the messy, demanding combination of art, motherhood, partnership, and ambition.
Worldwide Headquarters in the Pelican Hotel
The worldwide headquarters of The Virtuosa Society will be homegrown in the old Pelican Hotel in downtown Klamath Falls.
Katie noted:
"Klamath Falls is a town built by people who wanted to offer something big, to dream big — there were many early arts societies. To honor this heritage and her vision, she set forth to develop a caring space where arts and artists could flourish."
The Pelican Hotel — a historic Klamath Falls building — provides exactly the right context for the Society:
- Downtown location anchored in the city's cultural core
- Historic character honoring the basin's tradition of arts patronage
- Sufficient space for performance, gathering, workshop, and creative work
- Visibility that draws female creatives from across the region
What the Society Will Offer
The Virtuosa Society will be an incubator to build business practices — to help buoy creative and talented women with the resources to be the best, and most successful, versions of themselves as human beings and creative females.
Offerings include — but are not limited to:
- A community of access to webinars and events
- Counsel on financial and business support for enterprise operations as an artist/businesswoman
- Time-management techniques — women with special gifts also have extraordinary commitments to life outside their art
- Key connections to information resources and relationship-building
That structure addresses the practical needs of creative female entrepreneurs in ways that traditional arts organizations often don't.
Why This Matters
For Klamath Falls — and for the wider region The Virtuosa Society plans to serve — having a dedicated incubator for female creatives changes what's possible:
- Female composers gain visibility and performance opportunities
- Female musicians, artists, writers find peer networks and mentorship
- Female-owned creative businesses access the kind of business education most arts programs don't provide
- The next generation of Klamath girls sees a roadmap for combining art, family, and entrepreneurship
That last piece — the visibility for young women of what a creative female life can look like — may be the Society's longest-lasting impact.
A Klamath-Made National Vision
The Virtuosa Society isn't just a Klamath Falls organization. Katie's vision is national in scope — leveraging her Miss America platform, her network of female performers and composers, and her decades of arts-industry relationships.
The fact that the worldwide headquarters is in downtown Klamath Falls puts the basin on the map for a creative movement that will reach far beyond our borders.
How to Support
For Klamath Basin residents and businesses who want to support the Virtuosa Society's formation and growth:
- Follow the Society's progress as it formalizes its 501(c)(3) status and programming
- Sponsor the building renovation at the Pelican Hotel
- Attend founding events as they're announced
- Connect Katie with female creatives in your network who might benefit
- Donate to the Society's seed-funding round when it opens
A Klamath Welcome
The basin has welcomed Katie Harman Ebner home — first as a Miss America-era visitor, then as a Malin transplant, now as a downtown Klamath Falls founder of something national.
The Virtuosa Society is exactly the kind of bold, original, Klamath-made cultural institution that the basin has always been good at producing. Watch this space.
Welcome home, Katie. The basin is rooting for you and for every creative woman who walks through The Virtuosa Society's doors.