Kingsley Durant

You could say that music is in Kingsley Durant’s blood. He is the oldest of five brothers, and four of them play music. In fact, his entire family on his mother’s side is musical. Durant hails from a clan that boasts violinists, pianists, classical singers, organists, horn players, and guitarists in its ranks. 

Durant demonstrated both an aptitude and an appetite for music when he was young. He began playing when he was eight years old, learning piano, trumpet, and French horn as well as guitar. He performed in concert bands and choirs and studied music theory and composition in high school and college. The classical musicians in his family were important influences in his musical development, as was his uncle, Peter Gammons. He shared with Durant his comprehensive mid-1960s record collection, which included artists like Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and the Yardbirds. This led to a fascination with the sound and feel of guitars and rock and roll music that has never abated.

Durant was in his late teens when he started listening to jazz through the music of artists like Miles Davis, Weather Report, and Gary Burton. Jazz was the genre that inspired Durant to turn his love of music into something serious — but he had his reservations. He grew up with a well-respected church-organist grandfather who had little in the way of retirement savings at the end of his career, so Durant had no delusions about the realities of the lifestyle of many professional musicians. 

After college at Boston University, Durant became a teacher. He earned a PhD in mathematics education and taught the subject at various schools, teaching with every age group from middle school and high school students to college students and adults. By the mid-1990s, Durant had transitioned his propensity for instruction into a career writing and editing large-scale mathematics assessments. During that time, he never gave up music nor lost his passion for playing. He often found himself playing in the pit band for musicals, with groups of students he taught, with colleagues, or sitting in with groups in the area where he lived.  

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