John Duke (4)

American prolifice song composer, pianist & music teacher.
Born July 30, 1899 in Cumberland, Maryland, USA.
Died October 26, 1984.
Duke's mother, a singer, taught him to read music at an early age and then began piano lessons at age eleven. She enrolled him in the Cumberland, Maryland Allegheny Academy. By age sixteen he had won a three-year scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. He later studied at Columbia University in New York.
Duke made a special study of the music of composer Edward MacDowell.
In 1920 Duke debuted as a concert pianist. In 1923 he accepted a professorship at Smith College in Northhampton, Massachusetts, where he taught piano until his retirement 44 years later.