Eleanor Everest Freer

This article is about a music teacher and composer. For the pianist by a similar name, see Elinor Freer.

Eleanor Freer
Born	(1864-05-14)May 14, 1864 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Died	December 13, 1942(1942-12-13) (aged 78) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Occupations	Singer, teacher, composer

Freer in 1925

Eleanor Everest Freer (née Eleanor Warner Everest; 14 May 1864 Philadelphia – 13 Dec 1942 Chicago) was an American composer and philanthropist.

Life

Eleanor Everest Freer

Eleanor Everest was born in Philadelphia, the daughter of Cornelius Everest and Ellen Amelia (Clark) Everest, and studied singing in Paris with Mathilde Marchesi and composition with Benjamin Godard. She taught music in Philadelphia and New York City, and, in 1893, married Chicago physician Archibald Edward Freer (1862–1943). The couple had one daughter and moved to Chicago in 1899, where Eleanor studied music theory with Bernhard Ziehn. In 1934, she received a D.Mus. from the Boguslawski College of Music.

Freer was an active advocate for American opera, and opera sung in English. To this end, she helped to found the Opera in Our Language Foundation (OOLF) in 1921, and the David Bispham Memorial Fund in 1922 to promote concerts of American composers' works and award a Bispham Medal. The two organizations merged in 1924 to become the American Opera Society of Chicago.

Freer's one-act opera The Legend of the Piper was performed numerous times by the American Opera Company from 1928 through 1929. She died in Chicago in 1942.

Works

Freer composed eleven operas and more than 150 songs, many of which were published in collections. Selected works include:

• A Book of Songs, op. 4 (9 songs)
• Five Songs to Spring
• Four Songs
• Six Songs to Nature
• Sonnets from the Portuguese (44 songs)
• The Brownings Go to Italy
• Massimiliano, or The Court Jester, Romantic Opera in One Act
• The Legend of the Piper, opera
• Little Women, opera

See also

• Church, Paxson & Company

Bibliography

Sources

• Cohen, Aaron I. (1981). International Encyclopedia of Women Composers. New York and London: R.R. Bowker Company. ISBN 0-8352-1288-2; OCLC 7671325 (all editions).

See International Encyclopedia of Women Composers

1. "Freer, Eleanor". p. 166 – via Internet Archive.

• Etude (The). Theodore Presser Company.

1. Cooke, James Francis (1875–1960), ed. (February 1943). "The World of Music" (series) "Mrs. Archibald (Eleanor Everest) Freer" (obituary). Vol. 62, no. 3. p. 73 (column 3) – via Internet Archive.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: editors list (link)

• Glickman, Sylvia (1932–2006); Schleifer, Martha Furman, eds. (1996). Women Composers – Music Through the Ages (8 Vols.). Detroit & London: G.K. Hall.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: editors list (link) LCCN 95-24552; ISBN 978-0-7838-8194-2, 0-7838-8194-0 (Vol. 7)

1. Vol. 7: "Composers Born 1800–1899. Vocal Music".
1. Eversole, Sylvia M. "Eleanor Everest Freer (1864–1942)". pp. 466–476. (IA isbn_0783881940).

• Library of Congress. "Digitized Music": "Eleanor Everest Freer: A Guide to Resources".{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) Collection: The Library of Congress Celebrates the Songs of America.

• "Our History [American Opera Society of Chicago]". American Opera Society of Chicago. Retrieved November 1, 2022.

• Sadie, Julie Anne; Samuel, Rhian, eds. (1994). The Norton/Grove dictionary of women composers. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 176–177. ISBN 978-0-3930-3487-5.

1. "Freer, Eleanor Everest". Retrieved 4 October 2010 – via Google Books (limited preview).

External links

• Free scores by Eleanor Everest Freer at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)