Introduction

Biography

John was the son of min­is­ter N. S. Buck­ing­ham, of Vir­gin­ia, and Mar­ga­ret Mor­ris Dun­can of Penn­syl­van­ia.

He was edu­cat­ed in Bos­ton, Lon­don and Pa­ris. He stu­died mu­sic un­der Whit­ing (or­gan), Eme­ry (har­mo­ny), Par­ker (pi­ano), John K. Paine (coun­ter­point com­po­si­tion), I. Phi­lipp, Pa­ris (pi­ano), R. R. Ter­ry, and E. D’Ev­ry, Lon­don (plain song). He gra­du­ated from the Bos­ton Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege of Mu­sic in 1879.

He be­gan teach­ing at the New Eng­land Con­ser­va­to­ry in 1877, was a memb­er of its fa­cul­ty un­til June, 1896, then taught pri­vate­ly in Bo­ston.

He played the or­gan at Mo­nu­ment Square Church, Charles­town, Mas­sa­chu­setts (1876–81); Im­ma­nu­el Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church, Rox­bury, Mas­sa­chu­setts (1881–94); St. Mi­chael’s Ro­man Ca­tho­lic Church, Pro­vi­dence, Rhode Is­land (1897–1900); and at St. Mark’s Me­tho­dist Epis­co­pal Church, Brook­line, Mas­sa­chu­setts (1900–?).