Violet Archer


Violet Louise Archer was a Canadian composer, teacher, pianist, organist, and percussionist. Born Violet Balestreri in Montreal, Quebec, in 1913, her family changed their name to Archer in 1940. She died in Ottawa on 21 of February 2000.

Education and teaching career

Archer earned an L MUS from McGill University in 1934, and a B MUS from McGill in 1936 where she studied composition with Douglas Clarke. She travelled to New York City in the summer of 1942 where she studied with Béla Bartók, "who introduced her to Hungarian folk tunes and to variation technique. She taught at the McGill Conservatory from 1944–1947. Later in the 1940s she studied with Paul Hindemith at Yale. She earned a B MUS from Yale in 1948, and a M MUS also from Yale in 1949. From 1950–1953 Archer was Composer-in-Residence at the University of North Texas. From 1953 through 1961 she taught at the University of Oklahoma. Returning to Canada in 1961 for doctoral study at the University of Toronto, she set that aside when, in 1962, she joined the Faculty of Music at the University of Alberta. There she would become chairman of the Theory and Composition Department. She remained at the University of Alberta until her retirement. Her notable students include Larry Austin, Jan Randall, Allan Gilliland, and Allan Gordon Bell.

Musical career

Archer built a career as a musician and composer in addition to her teaching. She played percussion with the Montreal Women's Symphony Orchestra from 1940 to 1947, a time period when major municipal orchestras were not admitting women to their ranks. In addition to percussion, Archer played clarinet and strings, and worked in Montréal as an accompanist and organist. As a composer, Archer's prolific work of more than 330 compositions included traditional and more contemporary works for instrument and voice. Examples of her wide-ranging work include a 1973 comic opera, Sganarelle, the film score for a 1976 documentary, Someone Cares, and experimentations with electronic music. Her music has been described as "Archer is noted for her 90 compositions written for novice performers, which she wrote to encourage musicians and audiences of all levels to enjoy and understand key elements of modern music like harmony, melody, and rhythm.

Awards and honours

Archer has received honorary degrees from McGill University, University of Windsor, University of Calgary, Mount Allison University, and University of Alberta. In 1983, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada.
In Edmonton the Violet Archer Festival in Edmonton in 1985 was the first festival to honour a living Canadian composer. She is memorialized at Violet Archer Park in the Parkallen neighbourhood of Edmonton. In Calgary, the Prairie Region ofCanadian Music Centre Library is home to The Violet Archer Library which holds over 20,000 scores.
The Canadian indie rock band The Violet Archers is named for Archer.

Selected works