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 ...

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, February 9, 1971) is a Native American flutist, architect, and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

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 Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

. 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 Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

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 (born 1953), English former football ...

(

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 *Lakota ...

) and Edmund Wayne Nevaquaya (

Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...

), 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 seria ...

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 pair, ...

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 George Quincy (born in Oklahoma, United States) is an American composer and conductor of Choctaw heritage. He has composed for theater, dance, music, and television. Quincy holds degrees from the Juilliard School, where he has also taught. He wor ...

, 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, 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 mainta ...

in late 2008. He was the first person to use the old

warble Warble fly is a name given to the genus ''Hypoderma'': large fly, flies which are parasitism, parasitic on cattle and deer. Other names include "heel flies", "bomb flies" and "gadflies", while their larvae are often called "cattle grubs" or "wolv ...

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 voic ...

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, Potawatomi, ...

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, M ...

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 ...

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 China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, 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 List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, 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 branding t ...

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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 northern b ...

(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 wit ...

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 w ...

(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 world' ...

on the Samsung Museum of Contemporary Art 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 Ave ...

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 (Ontario), Muskrat River and the Ottawa River in the Ottawa Valley. Pembroke is the location of the administrative headquarters of Renfrew County, thoug ...

. 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