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Gail Archer publishes a book review
July, 2021

Gail Archer receives Harriman Institute Grant
May, 2021

Choir and Organ
Rupert Gough
Article published January/February 2021

CD Choice
Barry Forshaw
Article published September 23, 2020

New York Music Daily
delarue
Article published September 21, 2020

New York Music Daily
delarue
Article published September 12, 2020

New York Music Daily
delarue
Article published October 2018

Music Web International
Steve Arloff
Article published April 2018

Classical Modern Music
Grego Applegate Edwards
Article published February 13, 2018

Gramophone
Jed Distler
Article published December 2017

Maine Classic Beat
Christopher Hyde
Article published October 2017

Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM)
Lori Ardovino
Article published Fall 2015

"Gail Archer deftly navigates the various stylistic and technical requirements of this monumental work.

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Osnabruücker Zeitung
Konzert für Orgel und Viola Hochkarätige Besetzung zum Auftakt der Orgeltage Haren
Article published June 11, 2014
(English Translation provided by Google Translate)

"...excellent interaction and a harmonious sound of the two instruments, wonderfully supported by the sacred acoustics in the church Harener."

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WNYC
One NY Artist: Concert Organist and Choir Conductor Gail Archer
Interview broadcast September 14, 2013

"I was fascinated by the colors in the organ, because there are so many different sounds," she said. Archer is one of the few female organists in a male-dominated field. She is in a mission to promote women composers with her performances...

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Examiner.com
Gail Archer delivers on Casavant organ in CoC Temple in Independence
Review published June 4, 2013

"... played so sublimely that the ornaments did not even rise from the melodic lines, they just called attention to the highlighted landing note..."

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KC Metropolis.org
Reaping the rewards of varied repertoire
Review published June 5, 2013

"The gracious Gail Archer gave a commanding performance on the Community of Christ Temple organ on Sunday afternoon. Her program touched the baroque and then jumped to the late romantic and modern eras with ease."

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The Diapason
New Recordings: Franz Liszt—A Hungarian Rhapsody: Organ Works and Transcriptions.
Article published August 2012

"This is a highly recommended recording for the serious lover of the organ works of Franz Liszt... enjoy this recording with many repeated listenings for the ultimate effect of embracing this music."

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Echo Online
Extreme Höhen
Article published August 3, 2012

Orgelsommer – Die New Yorkerin Gail Archer bewährte sich im Freiklettern

Download the English translation here.

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Märkische Allgemeine
Frauenpower in der Erlöserkirche
Article published July 20, 2012

Meisterhaftes Orgelkonzert mit Gail Arche

Download the English translation here.

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The Spokesman-Review
Organist Archer headlines recital
She also serves as adjudicator at Musicfest

Concert preview published May 18, 2012

"Archer is in town as the organ adjudicator for the 67th annual Musicfest Northwest in Spokane. This year nearly 1,200 participants in ballet, brass, flute, guitar, organ, piano, reed, string and voice performed for judges during the week."

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Daily Courier-Observer
Renowned organist to perform with Potsdam chorus

Concert preview and interview published April 5, 2012

"An internationally-renowned concert organist will join the Potsdam Community Chorus for its annual spring concert at SUNY Potsdam’s Helen M. Hosmer Concert Hall."

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Time Out New York
Critic's Picks: Gail Archer Celebrates Liszt
Concert listing published February 2, 2011

"In honor of the composer's 200th birthday, organist Gail Archer kicks off a trio of Liszt-centric concerts with this program, featuring the immense Fantasie und Fuge über den Choral Ad nos, ad salutarem undam."
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Examiner.com
Organist Gail Archer to perform at the Central Synagogue
Concert preview & interview published May 11, 2010

"World-renowned organist Gail Archer will perform at the Central Synagogue Wednesday at 7:30. This stop is part of her tour celebrating the 325th Birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach. Ms. Archer will perform Bach?s incomplete masterpiece, The Art of Fugue. She took a few minutes to answer questions for NY Culture Examiner about response from audiences, and the perfect organ."

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Miss Music Nerd
The Transcedent Organist: A Conversation With Gail Archer
Profile article published March 8, 2010

Gail Archer discusses Mendelssohn, Bach, her new CD, and being a woman in the organ world.

 
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Crain's New York Business
Gotham Gigs: Music to Her Ears
Profile article published January 19, 2009

"Concert organist Gail Archer has worked long and hard to master her technique, with gratifying results. "You can feel the passion in the room when you play," she says."

 
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The Bach Concert Series
JS Bach's 325th Birthday
January-April 2010, New York City
Gail Archer, Organ

Read the following articles! (click to download full article)

Concert Review:
"She turned the Adagio of the Concerto in C Major (BWV 594) into a dizzyingly mesmerizing exercise in natural reverb, playing at exactly the right tempo where the counterpoint echoing off the walls became part of the performance, playing along as its own metronome... By the time she got to the big showstopper... there was nothing to do but to blaze through, her tightly glistening, festively romping cascades earning her a roaring ovation at the end."
-Lucid Culture , March 14, 2010

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The Mendelssohn Concert Series
Mendelssohn Bicentennial
January-May 2009, New York City
Gail Archer, Organ

Read the following articles! (click to download full article)

Podcast Interview:
"Gail tells us all about her concerts in celebrating famous composer’s birthdays one still going on with the bi-centennial of composer Felix Mendelssohn at synagogues in NYC."
-Jay Grayce Show, March 17, 2009

Review:
"The first of these recitals at Central Synagogue last month saw Archer pulling out a rare, all-too-brief piece by Mendelssohn’s sister Fanny. Last night [Archer] ran through a strikingly different program of mostly happy, upbeat material. Mendelssohn’s Sonata #3 was aptly ebullient, ending on a quieter yet equally warm note with the adagio; Sonata #2 was a methodically confident stroll through somewhat darker territory... Archer continues the series on March 11 at 7:30 PM at Central Synagogue in midtown: classical music fans would be crazy to miss it."
-Lucid Culture, February 18, 2009

Interview & Preview:
" 'I'm thrilled to be casting a spotlight on not only his [Mendelssohn's] music, but also the century-long vilification of his music and his tragically short life.'"
-The Jewish Week, February 13, 2009

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The Messaen Concert Series
Olivier Messiaen
January-May 2008, New York City
Gail Archer, Organ

In honor of one of the greatest organist composers of all time, Archer presents a Messiaen musical journey exploring all six of his complete organ works, while showcasing six of Manhattan’s superior church organs.

Read the following articles! (click to download full article)

Review:
One of the "Best Classical Moments of 2008"
-Time Out New York, December 18, 2008

Interview:
"I wanted young people, older people, people who never had a reason to walk into St. Patrick's Cathedral, I deliberately wanted to bring them into the great spaces to listen to the music."
-National Catholic Register,
December 7,2008

Review:
"Within Ms. Archer's vivid, muscular performance, in fact, were moments of striking simplicity, most notably the declarative single-line melodies, based on plainchant, that open several movements and seem like straight forward professions of faith before the inevitable grappling with the terrors of the sublime... In the more expansively dense sections Ms. Archer played with an unflagging power and assertiveness."
-The New York Times,
May 31, 2008

Review:
"A riveting, marathon performance... Archer treated the audience to a limousine ride through a minefield: fireworks were going off everywhere, but she glided along with an agility that seemed effortless."
-Lucid Culture Blog, May 30, 2008

Review:
"Ms. Archer gave a solid performance, emphasizing the dramatic to great effect. In the section titled 'The Father Unbegotten,' she expertly struck the balance between the frightening and the gentle, the fortissimo tone clusters and the delicate
fingerings of lyrically melodic snatches."

-The New York Sun,April 22, 2008

Review:
"Ms. Archer’s well-paced interpretation had a compelling authority. She played with a bracing physicality in the work’s more driven passages and endowed humbler ruminations with a sense of vulnerability and awe."
-The New York Times, January 15, 2008

Interview/preview:
"A unique concert series starts this Sunday at an Upper East Side church, featuring a passionate musician who is helping to change the image of the church organ."
-NY1
, January 11, 2008

Interview:
"'Messiaen's music, she suggested, is just what New Yorkers need to refresh their minds and spirits in the new year. 'It's very peaceful and meditative,' she said. 'It allows you space to think and breathe and just be at peace with your own thoughts.'"
-The New York Sun, January 8, 2008


Photographer: Jennifer Taylor
for The New York Times.
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CD: A Mystic In the Making
Olivier Messiaen

Gail Archer, Organ
(2007 Release from Meyer Media)

A Mystic In The Making was nominated for a Grammy in the 'instrumentalist without an orchestra' category.

Read the following glowing reviews! (click to download full article)

December 2007
"Dr. Archer plays these formidable works with authority, assertiveness, and rhythmic exactitude...Dr. Archer's [interpretaions] are compelling."
-The American Organist
Article and images
Copyright 2007, by the American Guild of Organists.Reproduced by permission of The American Organist Magazine.

October 2007
"Archer plays with just the right combination of precision and rhythmic fluidity that the music needs to dance and soar."
- All Music Guide

September 2007
"...[A Mystic In the Making] will rattle all the glassware in your house"
American Record Guide

May 2007
"Gail Archer has become one of the world's few star concert organists....Archer balances power, clarity and colour beautifully throughout L'Ascension and Les corps glorieux."
� John Terauds, Toronto Star

   
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CD: The Orpheus of Amsterdam
Sweelinck and his Pupils

Gail Archer, Organ
(2005 Release from Cala Records)

Read the following glowing reviews! (click to download full article)

July, 2006
"Gail Archer�s ebullient enthusiasm for this music is clearly evident. She elicits the technical brilliance, humor, and earthly and spiritual qualities inherent in the music.  Her program reflects the prominent compositional techniques of the era: toccata-fantasy, echo effects, variation, thematic transformation, chorale setting, and secular song and dance settings."
� James Hildreth, The American Organist
Article and images Copyright 2006, by the American Guild of Organists.Reproduced by permission of The American Organist Magazine.

   
 
   
"Breathtaking brevity...a brilliant performance"
Music and Vision 
 
   
 
   
"Archer is beyond criticism..." 
Toronto Star
 
   

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Quotes and accolades from her fans!

March 1, 2005

 

"So very impressed was I by your glorious performance on our Randall Dyer masterwork here in our beloved Rollins College chapel � and Oh! How informative was your wonderfully interesting talk the next day! � that I don�t want the time to go by without expressing my gratitude in writing! Many, many thanks for honoring us here last month."

John Oliver Rich

Dean of Admissions, Emeritus, Rollins College

Winter Park, FL

 

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The New York Times

At the Organ, Shades of a Mystic in the Making
By ALLAN KOZINN

July 15, 2002

For concertgoers who are used to watching performers make music, organ recitals can be peculiar events. Typically, the player is hidden away in a church's organ loft, unseen by the audience except for bows at the start and the finish. Perhaps that is as it should be: the audience, bathed in a grand, variegated sound, can focus on the music or its spiritual associations, without the distraction of a performer.

Riverside Church lets listeners have it both ways in its annual summer series of Tuesday evening organ recitals. A video image of the organist is projected onto a screen at the front of the church, offering a static view (from above) of the player and the instruments. The screen is large enough to show the mechanics of the performance; but for listeners who prefer the organist's traditional invisibility, it is small enough — in the context of this enormous church — to ignore.

Gail Archer opened the series on Tuesday evening with a powerful rendering of "Les Corps Glorieux," the 1939 work that Messiaen subtitled "seven short visions of the life everlasting." The deeply personalized, mystical idiom that Messiaen created is not fully developed in this cycle. Yet, hearing the piece with the experience of his later scores, one can see that language clearly in formation.

The opening movement, "Subtilité des Corps Glorieux," evokes the resurrected bodies in the afterlife in a single, calmly winding line. From there, the imagery builds gradually, with heavenly fountains drawn in gently cloudy harmonies, smoking incense suggested in a poetically simple line in reedy coloration and, in the work's central movement, the battle of life and death offered in bright, brash colors and dense chromaticism, all of which resolve into graceful serenity (by way of flute timbres) as life prevails.

The bright-hued fifth and sixth movements celebrate the vitality inherent in salvation, and the finale, "Le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité," is contemplative, but with an undercurrent of chromaticism that gives it texture and keeps it surprising.

Ms. Archer offered a carefully considered tour of these painterly movements, and perhaps most important, she played with an agility that met the music's coloristic and rhythmic demands without calling attention to itself.