Dee Boyd first gained a passion for music at age eight when she started playing cornet for a community brass band and later that year picked up another traditional brass band instrument – the Flugel horn. Although having had no formal training, she went on at age eleven to play cornet for pro-am musicals. When she was thirteen she started playing classical trumpet and in the same year came second in the Australian National Band Championship for solo Flugel Horn, playing in the under-seventeens division.
In 2002, when only fourteen, she played in brass ensemble, state honours band and symphony orchestara with the young conservatorium. The same year, she received critical acclaim at the Murwullimbah Festival of Performing Arts, winning 1st place in the under-21 Brass Solo among other awards. The following year, Dee was awarded “Most Promising Performer in Brass/Wind Sections†at the Gold Coast Eisteddfod, as well as winning both the 13-16yrs Brass/Wind Championship and the Open age Brass/Wind Championship.
She continued playing in various Young Conservatorium bands, Pro-am musicals and also with the Air Force Cadet band, becoming the bugle player for many official functions at Amberly Air Force Base and for RAAF functions around South-East Queensland. In 2004 she started playing with the BASY Big Band, as well as beginning study with the International Baccalaureate in the field of Music. After graduating high-school in 2005, she started at Griffith University Conservatorium of Music, studying a Bachelor of Music (Performance) with teacher,Geoff Spiller, while also starting performances with the St Lucia Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia of St Andrews Symphony Orchestra and the QLD Philanthropic Orchestra. At the end of that year she achieved a high distinction in her end-of-year trumpet recital and was offered entry into the Advanced Performance Major. In her first Advanced Performance recital she gained a Distinction despite the stringent marking criteria.
Dee has worked with many Australian and International guest artists and was recently accepted into the Australian International Summer Orchestra Institute in Tasmania. Outside of these commitments, she still finds the time to teach and participate in external volunteer orchestras and other groups.
In the future she hopes to become an International Solo performer while being heavily involved in an professional orchestral career.
