Photo © Buck Ennis via christkingparish.org
Gail Archer
Gail Archer
On Sunday, Oct. 2, Christ King Church and Milwaukee Chapter of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) are co-sponsoring a concert of contemporary Ukrainian organ music as a way of supporting the Ukrainian people against the Russian invasion. Gail Archer reached out directly to the parish and AGO who graciously offered to host the recital.
She will be playing the Opus 52 pipe organ manufactured by Juget-Sinclair of Montreal, Canada. It is a two-manual 41 stop organ that required more than 23,000 man-hours to manufacture and install. I can’t do justice to the description offered online on the church website: www.christkingparish.org/worship/organ.cfm where you can find the article written by Robin Cote, the President of Juget-Sinclair. It appeared in the September 2021 issue of the The American Organist, a national magazine publication of the American Guild of Organists.
Scott Riedel and Associates, Milwaukee Organ/Acoustical Consultants, were engaged to ensure the tonal qualities of the installation which was completed in the spring of 2021.
Archer is a world-renowned organist and a full time Professor of Professional Practice and Chair of Music at Barnard College, Columbia University. She also serves as the college organist at Vassar College, where she teaches and mentors organ students. She is the founder of Musforum, an international forum for women organists.
She will play pieces from her recent album Chernivtsi Contemporary Ukrainian Organ. Chernivtsi is the capital city of the oblast (province) of the same name in southwestern Ukraine on the border with Romania and Moldova.
I asked Archer about the title of this album and her support of the Ukrainian people.
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Do you have any special connection to this oblast?
I played summer concerts for several years on the fine Riegger-Kloss organ at the Armenian church in Chernivtsi, before I recorded the album. The organ was installed by the Chernivtsi Philharmonic in a partnership with the church. The philharmonic uses the church for organ recitals and chamber music concerts, and the community uses the organ for their worship services.
You said in an online interview that “artists need to find corners of repertoire where light needs to be shed so that we hear music by other people.” She has travelled extensively in Eastern Europe for more than 15 years studying their organ literature which remains virtually unknown in Western Europe and the United States. I asked her to share a few words about her work in Russia?
I travelled to Russia for the first time in the summer of 2013 on a grant from the Russian government; The Russian Journey CD. released in 2017, was the result of that trip and subsequent visits to Russian.
Do you have any connection to the Ukrainian community in Milwaukee, and of so will you be meeting with any of their representatives?
I have played regularly in Milwaukee, but I have not had the privilege of meeting members of the Ukrainian community. I hope that I will meet them on this occasion.
Are you offering similar concerts in support of the Ukraine in other cities/countries?
Yes, I played the same mixed program I will play in Milwaukee, which includes selections from the Ukrainian CD, at Holy Cross Cathedral in Boston in May, 2022. I played the full Chernivtsi program at Columbia University to benefit Caritas in May, 2022, and just last weekend, I played the Chernivtsi program at the Ukrainian Cathedral in Philadelphia also for the benefit of Caritas, a charity working in Poland with Ukrainian refugees. I will play two performances of the Chernivtsi program in Winnipeg, Canada to benefit a Canadian foundation for Ukrainian relief on September 24/25.
Music is supposed to build bridges, span national boundaries, and for the most part is politically neutral. Did you consider including any music by Russian composers on the program?
St. Patrick's Cathedral, NYC, has invited me to play a Concert for Peace on January 19, 2023, which will include both Russian and Ukrainian selections from the two albums. I released a Polish CD, Cantius, in May, 2022 which was recorded on the 1926 Casavant organ at St. John Cantius Roman Catholic Church in Chicago.
You started Musforum because women organists were too often not considered for positions for which they were qualified. Have you seen any progress in this area?
Highly educated and skilled women organists still struggle for recognition and support in the field. We must continue to raise awareness of this continuing problem so that gifted women will make the career progress that they have earned.
There are several You Tube recordings of Archer but hearing a recital on an organ of this quality will be especially rewarding.
Further information can be found on www.musforum.org and www.gailarcher.com
1:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct.2 at Christ King Church, 2604 N. Swan Blvd, Wauwatosa. The concert is free. Additional information can be found on the Christ King Church website:
