John Buckley (composer)

John Buckley (born 19 December 1951) is an Irish composer and pedagogue, a co-founder of the Ennis Summer School and member of Aosdána.

John Buckley was born in Templeglantine, County Limerick. He grew up in a rural environment and was introduced to traditional music learning the button accordion from the local player Liam Moloney when he was 9 years of age. In 1969 he moved to Dublin to study for the Teacher's Diploma at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra. Here he had his first opportunity to hear live classical and modern music including contemporary and avantgarde works by Irish composers including Aloys Fleischmann, Brian Boydell, John Kinsella, and Seóirse Bodley, as well as works by international composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki. He became a student at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin (1969–74), studying the flute with Doris Keogh and composition with A.J. Potter and James Wilson. He continued his musical studies with Alun Hoddinott in Cardiff, Wales (1978–82), Aloys Fleischmann in Cork (M.A. in composition, 1980), and briefly with John Cage during a summer school for composers and choreographers at Guildford, Surrey, in 1981. Initially working as secondary school teacher, from 1982 he was able to work independently as a composer. In 1983, Buckley was the co-founder, with James Wilson, of the annual Ennis Summer School for composition, which became an influential training ground for aspiring young Irish composers; pupils included Michael Alcorn, Rhona Clarke, and Gráinne Mulvey. He became a member of Aosdána, Ireland's state-sponsored academy of creative artists, in 1984. Since 2001 he has been a lecturer in music at St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra. From the National University of Ireland at Maynooth (now 'Maynooth University') he received a PhD in 2002 and a DMus in 2007.

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