Robert Thurman
In April, 2005, Thurman first spoke the words of Albert Schweitzer in a New York City production of the Words of Albert Schweitzer and the Music of Bach. A recognized worldwide authority on religion, Asian history, philosophy, Tibetan Buddhism, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he is an eloquent advocate of the relevance of Eastern ideas in our daily lives, In doing so, he has become a leading voice of the value of reason, peace and compassion. He was named one of Time magazine’s 25 most influential Americans.
His own search for enlightenment began while he was a student at Harvard. Thurman left school on a spiritual quest throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia. In India he first saw H. H. the Dalai Lama in 1962, and after learning Tibetan and studying Buddhism he became a Tibetan Buddhist monk and was ordained by the Dalai Lama, the first Westerner to earn that distinction. However, some years later, he gave up his robes when he “discovered he could be more effective in the American equivalent of the monastery: the University.”
Thurman is the Chair of Religious Studies at Columbia University and co-founded Tibet House US in l987 with Richard Gere and Philip Glass.
www.bobthurman.com |
Gail Archer
Ms. Archer played for Words of Albert Schweitzer and the Music of Bach in Reno, Nevada, and in New York City, featured with Robert Thurman. She is an international concert organist, lecturer, and recording artist. Two CDs were previously released in 2005: The Orpheus of Amsterdam: Sweelinck and his Pupils, recorded on the Fisk Organ at Wellesley College; and a live concert recording made at the Organalia Festival in Turin, Italy. In February, 2006, she will be directing an international exchange program sponsored by the Polish Cultural Institute and Harriman Institute of Columbia University.
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. She holds a DMA in organ performance from the Manhattan School of Music; she also earned an artist diploma from the Boston Conservatory. She lives in New York City, where she serves as Chair of the Music Department at Barnard College, Columbia University, and is Professor of Organ at the Manhattan School of Music.
Of a concert performance, 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.”
www.gailarcher.com |
