Violet Louise Archer[1] CM (24 April 1913 – 21 February 2000) was a Canadian composer, teacher, pianist, organist, and percussionist.
[3] Archer travelled to New York City in the summer of 1942 and studied composition, including Hungarian folk music and variation technique, with Béla Bartók.
[7] In addition to percussion, Archer played clarinet and strings,[8] and worked in Montréal as an accompanist and organist.
[2] Examples of her wide-ranging work include a 1973 comic opera, Sganarelle, the film score for a 1976 documentary, Someone Cares, and experiments with electronic music.
[6] Her music includes some 90 compositions for novice musicians, written to acquaint performers and audiences with modern concepts of harmony, melody, and rhythm.
[13][14] In 2021, Violet Archer fonds held at University of Alberta Archives was added to the Canada Memory of the World Register.