DEE ARMSTRONG
MUSICIAN | COMPOSER | THEATRE ARTS | FILM
Dee Armstrong is a self-taught musician and multi-instrumentalist. She composes and produces music for film and theatre, designs sets and costumes and creates giant puppets and other visual elements for carnival and theatre.
Musician
Dee is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and a vibrant force in Irish music for over three decades. Best known as the fiddle player with the iconic band Kila since 1991, she brings an electrifying energy to every performance. Coming from a deeply musical family, Dee has inherited a legacy that resonates through the generations. This influence is unmistakably present in both her solo work and collaborative projects. Her children – Tiggy, Diarmuid, Lughaidh and Rosie continue this family tradition.
Dee's upcoming solo album, Deichtine's Daughter, to be released in 2025 features, Diarmuid and Lughaidh playing 5 string banjo and guitar respectively.
For sixteen years Dee has organised and tutored the Rock School at The Glens Arts Centre, Manor Hamilton, mentoring and recording young musicians.
Composer
Dee composes music for her own solo projects, and for radio and theatre. She worked on numerous soundtracks for film while in college, which provided great experience when Kila began creating soundtracks for film and television, most notably with leading Irish animation studios Cartoon Saloon.
Dee recently received a Music Bursary and a Traditional Arts Project award by the Arts Council to compose a second solo album and to make a documentary on North Leitrim musician Micheal Clancy, Man of a Thousand Tunes. This work is ongoing.
Theatre Arts
Dee trained in the late 1990s with renowned street theatre group Macnas. She has been artistic director of the Cluainin Carnival Arts Group since 2001. She specialises in creating large willow puppets and mask making, and has designed and made costumes and puppets for numerous carnivals and street festivals.
For 30 years Dee designed and coordinated all Kila's visual elements, projections, performers and sets, and collaborated with designers for the artwork for their albums.
Dee attained a first class honours degree in Performing Arts and Theatre Design in 2017.
Film
Dee studied film in Dun Laoghaire VEC, now the National Film School,
graduating in 1993. Her short film Changelings, which she wrote, directed,
edited and did the soundtrack for, won 7 catagories at the Fugi Awards in
London, including Best Director, Best Script, Best Editor, Best Cinematographer
and Best Soundtrack. During her time there, she composed numerous soundtracks
for short films and specialised in Art Direction and Costume. A career in film
wasn't possible at that time, (except film soundtracks), but over Lockdown Dee
and her family began making short films.