Eleanor Everest Freer


Eleanor Everest Freer was an American composer and philanthropist.

Life

Eleanor Everest was born in Philadelphia, the daughter of Cornelius Everest and Ellen Amelia Everest, and studied singing in Paris with Mathilde Marchesi and composition with Benjamin Godard. She taught music in Philadelphia and New York City, and married Chicago doctor Archibald Freer in 1893. The couple had one daughter and moved to Chicago in 1899, where Eleanor Freer studied music theory with Bernard Ziehn. In 1934, she received a D.Mus. from the Boguslawski College of Music.
Freer was the founder of the Opera in Our Language Foundation in 1921 and the American Opera Society of Chicago. 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: