Ferdinand Dunkley (1869-1956) was a New Orleans based musician, poet, and writer. Born in London in 1869, he attended the Royal College of Music and Trinity College of Music. His orchestral suite, Among Yon Mountain-Fastnesses, won a 50-guinea prize and was performed at the London Promenade Concerts in 1889. Dunkley moved to New York in 1893 to work as a director. His skills as a conductor and organist brought him around the continent, performing and teaching in North Carolina, New Orleans, Vancouver, and Seattle, before settling in Birmingham, Alabama in 1920 as organist of the Church of the Advent. Dunkley was the author of The Buoyant Voice Acquired by Correct Pitch-Control: A New Scientific Method of Training (1942).
Dunkley established the New Orleans Choral-Symphony Society and was active in various musical and literary groups. He was a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers, Secretary and Treasurer of the National Catholic Music Educators Association in Louisiana, and involved with the Edward MacDowell Association. In 1951, Dunkley became the President of the New Orleans Branch of the National Writers Club. He died in New Jersey.
