Kathy Armstrong
Associate Professor, Teaching Stream; Undergraduate Supervisor; Practicum Supervisor; Ensemble Director
| Email: | kathy.armstrong@carleton.ca |
| Office: | A929 Loeb |
Kathy Armstrong is a percussionist and educator combining her training in classical music and education with her many years of studies in Ghanaian music and dance to offer an integrated and community-based approach in her work. Her research interests include participatory music-making, music and wellbeing, social justice in music education and applied ethnomusicology. Kathy received her Bachelor and Master’s Degrees in Percussion and Music Education from the University of Toronto, and later completed an MA in Music and Culture at Carleton University, where she received a Senate Medal for her thesis researching the links between drumming and health and wellbeing for adolescents.
At Carleton, Kathy has taught for many years in the Music program of the School for Studies in Art and Culture, as well as the Institute for African Studies (IAS). She has developed innovative Applied Rhythm courses using Western and non-Western techniques. Kathy also teaches courses in African Music, Popular Musics of the World, Music of the World’s Peoples, Global Music and Wellbeing, and Race & Representation in the Arts. Through the IAS Kathy took students to Ghana to study Urban and Rural Music in 2013 and 2023. She is also the founding director of Carleton University’s West African Rhythm Ensemble (WARE).
Outside of her work at Carleton, Kathy has presented papers and been guest artist and clinician in a wide variety of academic and community settings throughout the world. For twenty-five years, Kathy was the founding director of Ottawa’s Baobab Tree Drum Dance Community, bringing Ghanaian music and artists to students of all ages. She regularly travels and hosts programs in Ghana, where she has a three-decade association with her teacher Kwasi Dunyo and his village of Dagbamete, in the Volta Region of Ghana. For her contributions, Kathy received a Community Appreciation Award from the Ghanaian Association of Ottawa, and in 2017 was named an honorary elder in Dagbamete.
In 2021, Kathy launched the Baobab Collaborative Arts Fund, an endowed fund that brings individuals from the African diasporic community to share their cultural knowledge and expertise with Carleton students and the general public, through experiential learning opportunities and performances. This fund supports intentions outlined in Kathy’s recent research project “Reimagining the Global Music Ensemble”.
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