Timothy Archambault (also known as Tim Archambault; born
Willimantic,
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
, February 9, 1971) is a
Native American flutist, architect, and
composer.
Background
Archambault is a member of the
Kichesipirini
The Kichesipirini ("People of the Great River", "Island Indians") are an Algonquin indigenous people of Canada. Their traditional homeland and primary village was located on Morrison Island (also called Morrison's Island) in the Ottawa River (whic ...
Algonquin
Algonquin or Algonquian—and the variation Algonki(a)n—may refer to:
Languages and peoples
*Algonquian languages, a large subfamily of Native American languages in a wide swath of eastern North America from Canada to Virginia
**Algonquin la ...
First Nation. He graduated with two degrees (bachelor of architecture and bachelor of fine arts) from the
Rhode Island School of Design
The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...
, taking courses in
music theory at
Brown University during this time.
Musical career
Archambault began playing the Native American flute in 1989 and has devoted intensive study to the earliest recordings of the instrument, dating back to the early 20th century. He has also studied informally with the Native American flutists
Kevin Locke Kevin Locke may refer to:
*Kevin Locke (musician) (born 1954 - passed October 1, 2022), Native American musician
*Kevin Locke (rugby league) (born 1989), New Zealand rugby league footballer
See also
*Kevin Lock
Kevin Lock (born 27 December 19 ...
(
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
*Lakota, Iowa
*Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
*Lakot ...
) and
Edmund Wayne Nevaquaya
Edmund is a masculine given name or surname in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector".
Persons named Edmund include:
People Kings an ...
(
Comanche), and has collected songs of his Kichesipirini heritage, from elders in Canada as well as from archival
wax cylinder
Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to give low ...
recordings made in the early 20th century.
In addition to performing in traditional styles, since the early 21st century he has achieved notoriety for being one of the few Native American flutists to perform
contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included se ...
on the instrument. He is able to play complex
chromatic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a ...
music on the Native American flute, and is the first enrolled member of a North American indigenous nation to master this style. He has performed the music of Native American composers David Yeagley,
George Quincy, and
Raven Chacon
Raven Chacon (born 1977) is a Diné-American composer, musician and artist. Born in Fort Defiance, Arizona within the Navajo Nation, Chacon became the first Native American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music, for his '' Voiceless Mass'' in 2022.
...
. His recording of Yeagley's ''Wessi vah-peh'', for Native American flute and orchestra, performed with the
National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra Katowice
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, c ...
, will be released by
Opus One Records
Max Schubel (April 11, 1932 – February 10, 2010) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is best known for being the founder and owner of Opus One records, a company dedicated to the recording of new music.
Schubel maintain ...
in late 2008. He was the first person to use the old
warble technique (in which a single flute tone "splits" into a
multiphonic
A multiphonic is an extended technique on a monophonic musical instrument (one that generally produces only one note at a time) in which several notes are produced at once. This includes wind, reed, and brass instruments, as well as the human voi ...
oscillation) within the context of contemporary classical music.
Archambault is planning to record, in late 2008, a solo album of compositions by David Yeagley entitled ''Suite Tragique'' which is dedicated to the Kichesipirini Algonquin First Nation, as well as a collaborative composition utilizing traditional
Anishinaabe
The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawato ...
g
musical notation
Music notation or musical notation is any system used to visually represent aurally perceived music played with instruments or sung by the human voice through the use of written, printed, or otherwise-produced symbols, including notation fo ...
with the Navajo composer Raven Chacon. He recorded an orchestral work entitled ''The Choctaw Diaries'' by the Choctaw composer George Quincy, which was released by Lyrichord Classical on June 17, 2008.
In 2008, he joined an all-Native American orchestra called The Coast Orchestra.
As a composer, in the spring of 2007 he composed a work for solo cello for the
Mohawk Mohawk may refer to:
Related to Native Americans
*Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York)
*Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people
*Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been t ...
cellist, as a part of her North American Indian Cello Project; this work will be released on CD in late 2008.
Archambault is a member of the
First Nations Composer Initiative
The American Composers Forum is an American organization that works for the promotion and assistance of American composers and contemporary classical music. It was founded in 1973 as the Minnesota Composers Forum and is based in Saint Paul, Minne ...
and performed at the
National Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers.
The museum has three ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
in November 2006. In August 2007, he recorded traditional Kichesipirini flute songs for the National Museum of the American Indian archives, and in 2008 he was one of the First Nations Composer Initiative judge panelists who awarded several grants to American Indian musicians.
Architectural career
Archambault lives in
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
,
China, where he is a project manager at the Beijing office of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture; he is currently designing a large-scale architectural project in Southeast Asia. Before taking this position he worked as a Project Architect in
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
and
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
, working on the designs for the
Prada
Prada S.p.A. (, ; ) is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1913 in Milan by Mario Prada. It specializes in leather handbags, travel accessories, shoes, ready-to-wear, and other fashion accessories. Prada licenses its name and brandin ...
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develo ...
Store, the Lehmann Maupin Gallery in
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The area's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, the Hudson River and West Street to the west, and Sixth Avenue to the east, with its nort ...
(commissioned in 2001 and completed in 2002), and the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre at the
Dallas Center for the Performing Arts
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County wi ...
in
Dallas, Texas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County wi ...
(commissioned in 2004 and scheduled to be completed in 2008). Prior to joining OMA in 1999, and helping to establish its New York office, he worked for Pasanella+Klein Stolzman+Berg Architects in New York on the Pratt Stabile Hall Dormitory, and for Frank O. Gehry and Associates in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
on the
Samsung Museum of Contemporary Art
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ' ...
and the
Walt Disney Concert Hall
The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 24, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand A ...
.
Personal life
Archambault is a hereditary senator of the Kichesipirini Algonquin First Nation, and is active in tribal issues, keeping close ties with the nation, which is based in
Pembroke, Ontario
Pembroke is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario at the confluence of the Muskrat River and the Ottawa River in the Ottawa Valley. Pembroke is the location of the administrative headquarters of Renfrew County, though the city itself is pol ...
. He is married to fine-art photographer
CYJO.
References
External links
"American Indian Composers Go Classical" by Felix Contreras, from ''All Things Considered'', January 1, 2009
{{DEFAULTSORT:Archambault, Timothy
Native American composers
Native American flautists
Native American architects
1971 births
Living people
Algonquin people
20th-century American architects
American male classical composers
American classical composers
Rhode Island School of Design alumni
People from Willimantic, Connecticut
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
21st-century American composers
20th-century American composers
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century American architects
Rhode Island School of Design alumni in music
20th-century flautists
21st-century flautists