“...A powerful rendering of ‘Les Corps Glorieux’ ... she played with an agility that met the music’s coloristic and rhythmic demands.”     - The New York Times

Gail Archer is an international concert organist, lecturer, and recording artist whose sophomore solo CD release A Mystic In the Making (MM07007), featuring the music of Olivier Messiaen, was recently released from the Meyer Media label. Ms. Archer's solo debut CD The Orpheus of Amsterdam: Sweelinck and his Pupils (CACD 88043), recorded on the Fisk organ at Wellesley College , was released in 2006 by London ’s Cala Records. A live concert recording made at the Organalia Festival in Turin , Italy was also released in 2005.  Her modern edition and translation of Cantate, ariete a una, due, et tre voci Op. 3 by the seventeenth century Venetian composer Barbara Strozzi has been published in A-R Editions Recent Researches series; a CD of the edition has been released on the Dorian label. Throughout the 2007-08 season, Ms. Archer will be touring North America and Europe in support of her Meyer Media recording.

Among the areas of expertise upon which Ms. Archer is frequently invited to lecture and perform are early fingering and organ registration in the Dutch and North German School, from Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and his circle to Dieterich Buxtehude and Johann Sebastian Bach; the Leipzig "Great Eighteen" chorale preludes and Clavierubung III; and mixed programs drawn from the full spectrum of the principal composers: Sweelinck, Scheidemann, Strunck, Scheidt, Böhm, Buxtehude and Bach. Her interest also extends to the Italian and Spanish schools of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, especially Frescobaldi. Her complementary interest is the music of Olivier Messiaen; she frequently performs Le Banquet celeste, Apparition de L’Église Éternelle, L’Ascension, La Nativité du Seigneur, Messe de la Pentecôte, and Les Corps Glorieux. About her recent performance of the latter, the New York Times declared  “...A powerful rendering of Les Corps Glorieux ... she played with an agility that met the music’s coloristic and rhythmic demands.” 

Ms. Archer holds a DMA in organ performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with McNeil Robinson; she also earned an artist diploma from the Boston Conservatory where she studied with James David Christie and Jon Gillock.  An active recitalist in both Europe and the United States, she was featured on organ series in Budapest, Turin, Hamburg and the Hague in summer, 2004, and returned to Poland, Germany and Italy in summer, 2005.  She presented an historic performance practice workshop, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and his Disciples: the Foundation of the North German Organ School at the national convention of the American Guild of Organists in Los Angeles , California , and was a featured recitalist at the Organ Historical Society national convention in Buffalo , New York in July, 2004. In February 2006, Ms. Archer directed an international exchange program sponsored by The Polish Cultural Institute and Harriman Institute of Columbia University, featuring Polish organists performing in New York City . She performs regularly at festivals worldwide, including the Spoleto Festival in South Carolina and the Bach Festival at Rollins College   in Florida .

Ms. Archer lives in New York City, where she serves as Chair of the Music Department at Barnard College, Columbia University; Director of the Young Artist Series at Central Synagogue; Artistic Director of the Lunchtime Organ Recitals at historic Central Synagogue; and was recently appointed to the organ faculty at Manhattan School of Music and college organist at Vassar College.

For booking and promotional inquiries, please contact SOZO MEDIA at (917) 421-5552 or booking@sozomedia.com.

Download her high resolution photo HERE (.tif)

Photos by Steve J. Sherman.