Gail Archer

Gail Archer joined the Barnard faculty in 1988. In spring 2026, Barnard College appointed her to an endowed professorship as the Mary E. Larkin Joline Professor.   She is director of the Barnard-Columbia Chorus and Chamber Singers and teaches Introduction to Music, a year-long survey of Western Classical Music from Gregorian Chant to living composers. She is also an international concert organist and recording artist: her recordings include her 2025 release Dobrich: A Bulgarian Odyssey, and Cantiius, Chernivtsi, A Russian Journey, The Muse's Voice, Franz Liszt: A Hungarian Rhapsody, Bach, the Transcendent Genius,  An American Idyll, A Mystic in the Making, (Meyer-Media) and the Orpheus of Amsterdam: Sweelinck and his Pupils. (CALA Records). She is the founder of Musforum, www.musforum.org, a network for women organists to affirm and support their work. Professor Archer is a faculty member of the Harriman Institute, Columbia University and currently serves as Deputy Co-Director of the East Central European Center at Harriman. She serves as college organist at Vassar College. 

Artistic Focus

As director of the Barnard-Columbia Chorus, Professor Archer has led the chorus through the choral works with orchestra from Monteverdi to Stravinsky.  Most recently, the choir sang the Mass in D and Te deum laudamus by Antonin Dvorak.  In fall 2026, the chorus will have an exchange with the choir of Gdynia Maritime University, Gdynia, Poland to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Harriman Institute. The Barnard-Columbia Chamber Singers performs the a cappella vocal chamber music from the Renaissance to the present.