On July 14, 2003, Raymond Buckingham, a well-known voice teacher who taught in New York City, passed away in Holbrook, MD.
Originally from England, he first studied music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and went on to work privately with Dino Borgioli, Riccardo Stracciari and Nazzareno de Angelis. Later, he studied with Giovanni Martinelli, who sponsored and guided him at the beginning of his singing career. Buckingham sang leading roles in a number of musical comedies in London and even had his own television show for some time before coming to the United States.
In this country he concertized widely and sang with a number of opera companies. Leopold Stowkowski described his voice as a large basso profundo of unusually fine quality with a remarkable range.
As time went on he began to help colleagues who were having vocal difficulties and, eventually, he stopped performing so as to be able to devote all his time to teaching. He soon came to be regarded as a master at cultivating the voice, and his studio became a Mecca for serious students.
It is said that he took pride in debunking some of the questionable myths about singing technique and replacing them with proven methods that could be used on a daily basis by working singers and that his teaching not only included wise methodology but also kindness, humor and an understanding of individual differences.
Many of his students describe their relationship with him as life changing because, from him, they learned a great deal about living as well as singing. Some of the better known artists who studied with him include Morley Meredith, Julia Migenes, Patricia Neway and Neil Shicoff.
At his memorial service on July 17, his wife, Nancy, said that everything he did was larger than life, adding that he was an exhilarating and inspiring man whose loving manner affected far more lives than he ever realized. “He was the maestro of my life,” she said, “and I feel honored to have been his wife, partner, lover and friend during the last part of his life.”
