Two passions
Music professor Alan Durst has learned to balance his jobs as a traveling musician and a Fresno State professor
Joseph Vasqeuz / The Collegian
Besides teaching at Fresno State, music professor Alan Durst teaches classes around the world including places in Mexico and Central America. He is also a traveling saxophonist with the Panama International Saxophone Quartet that actively tours South America. But during the school year Durst can be found teaching classes and offering one on one instruction with his students like senior saxophonist Nathan Heald (far left). |
By Amanda Morris
The Collegian
With his family in Cleveland, girlfriend in Florida, home in Los Angeles, teaching career in Fresno and gigs in Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico and Holland, to say Alan Durst is well-traveled would be an understatement.
“That’s the thing about a music career, you have to be willing to do that kind of stuff,” Durst said.
Durst began his study of music in the fourth grade when he discovered his love for the saxophone at an “Introduction to Music” day at his elementary school in Cleveland.
He studied at the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music in Ohio where he graduated cum laude with a B.M. and B.M.E. and studied with world renown artist Greg Banaszak.
Durst said Banaszak was one of his most inspirational mentors and the first person to turn him on to a career in music.
“He did exactly what I dreamed of doing,” Durst said. “I’ve been very lucky because I’ve been able to study with world-class musicians.”
During his studies in Ohio, Durst took a year abroad where he studied in Holland at the Sweelink Conservatorium.
“I worked and practiced hard and I learned a lot about myself and playing. It was a really good experience for me,” Durst said.
Durst then moved to Miami to earn his M.M. from the University of Miami, School of Music and then he was off to the University of California, Los Angeles for his D.M.A.
“I packed up my little Corolla that I had at the time, and threw myself in a hotel and started looking for an apartment,” he said.
Once in L.A. Durst, who said he had nothing to do one day, began a music program at the first school he could find in Compton. He said he just walked in to the school and asked if they had a music program.
When the school said no, he said “Would you like one?”
Durst began his teaching career that day by developing a music program that he taught every Friday. He received grants from UCLA that allowed the program to grow so much he eventually became the program’s supervisor.
After accepting a teaching position at Fresno State he “let it go to come here,” he said, but he still maintains his residence in L.A.
In the midst of teaching in Fresno and working in L.A., Durst also plays internationally. He is well known in Panama where he is the co-founder and soprano saxophonist with the Panama International Saxophone Quartet. The Quartet actively tours in South America.
“I would go there for next to nothing,” Durst said. “I love the food and the people.”
In addition to performing all over the world, Durst also teaches worldwide. He has given clinics throughout the United States, Mexico and Central America. He also teaches woodwinds at the Korean Institute of Southern California.
“I try to balance teaching and playing,” he said, which are the two things he said he enjoys most.
One of his Fresno State students, Jennifer Roberts, said, “He grabs your attention and I think he knows what he’s talking about. I would gladly take another class with him.”
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