Archer, Frederick

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Archer, Frederick

Archer, Frederick, English–American organist, conductor, and composer; b. Oxford, June 16, 1838; d. Pittsburgh, Oct. 22, 1901. He studied organ in Leipzig. After serving as organist at London’s Alexandra Palace (1873–80), where he also appeared as a conductor, he became organist at Brooklyn’s Henry Ward Beecher church and then of N.Y’s Church of the Incarnation in 1881. He was founder–ed. of The Keynote (1883–84). In 1887 he became conductor of the Boston Oratorio Soc. After serving as organist at Chicago’s St. James’s Church, he became organist of the Carnegie Inst. in Pittsburgh in 1895. From 1896 to 1898 he also was conductor of the Pittsburgh Orch. He wrote a cantata, King Witlafs Drinking–Horn, much organ music, piano pieces, songs, and instruction manuals.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire