The American Opera Society of Chicago began as Opera in Our Language Foundation, a foundation incorporated in 1921 by Edith Rockefeller McCormick and Eleanor Everest Freer to promote the performance of opera sung in English.

Eleanor Everest Freer and Edith Rockefeller McCormick were also instrumental in founding the David Bispham Memorial Fund, incorporated in March 1922. This memorial fund’s focus was to honor American composers by promoting concerts of their works and by awarding the Bispham Medal. Eleanor Everest Freer was chairman of both the Opera in Our Language Foundation and of the Bispham Fund, while Edith Rockefeller McCormick served as Treasurer of both organizations.

In 1924 the Opera in Our Language Foundation and the David Bispham Memorial Fund merged to become incorporated as the American Opera Society of Chicago.

In the early years, the Society mounted a number of original operas in English. We produced three seasons of opera in English including miniature versions of Little Women by Eleanor Freer and Peter Ibbetson by Deems Taylor. We also mounted twenty-three classic operas translated by Charles Henry Metzer, including Carmen, Martha, Marriage of Figaro, and Madame Butterfly.

In addition, we awarded the Bispham Medal to more than sixty-five composers including George Gershwin, Howard Hanson, Victor Herbert, and Deems Taylor. The first medal was awarded in 1924 to Ernest Trow Carter, for his opera The White Bird, which saw its first full performance at the Studebaker Theater, in Chicago, on March 6, 1924. (The Opera in Our Language Foundation sponsored the performance.) The last Medal for an opera was awarded around 1953 to Vittorio Giannini for The Taming of the Shrew.

In time the American Opera Society of Chicago decided that our focus should be the support of all opera in Chicago, rather than only those in English. In 1959 we purchased the first stage set for the Lyric Theatre production of Jenufa. In 1960 we joined forces with the Illinois Opera Guild and Lyric Opera Women’s Board to produce the opening night of Don Carlo and the Opera Ball. Since its inception, we have promoted membership in Lyric Opera.

In 1951 we established the Scholarship Fund for deserving young musicians of superior ability and achievement, to further their studies. This fund is supported entirely by bequests and voluntary contributions of members. Our scholarship winners number more than 200 young musicians.