Music has always been a constant in Kent Hayward’s life.

His parents, Gloria Jean and Winslow Hayward, got him playing instruments as a youngster.

At 44, he’s still hooked. His skills extend to “ten or 12 instruments” although the French horn and trumpet are where his strength lies.

“I grew up in the Salvation Army and I come from a musical family,” he said. “My mother, my father and my three brothers all played brass instruments. Together, we’d make a brass band and we would perform in church and at [the former religious retreat] Willowbank, back in the day. But it really started with the Salvation Army camp.”

Mr Hayward was 7 when he joined the annual music camp run by the Christian organisation; years later he was part of the junior band.

“My mother was the band leader and I was given the alto horn. I wanted the trombone because that was what my oldest brother played, but I had to suck it up. I took the alto horn on and got quite proficient.”

At Warwick Academy he joined the music programme run by Warren Jones.

“I first played the E flat alto horn but halfway through high school [Mr] Jones switched me to the F horn, the French horn. I had been playing with a brass band, which has all brass instruments. At Warwick Academy they had a concert band and there are no alto horns, traditionally. So to make it work he had me play the saxophone but then switched me to the French horn, which I hated. But over the years I got to appreciate it.”

On graduation, he enrolled at the Bermuda College as a business major. It was only when he switched to Asbury College in Kentucky that he realised his mistake,

“Everybody in my class was only interested in how much money they could make — and that wasn’t me,” he said.

He found a home for himself in a familiar place.

“I joined the music faculty where I was taught the French horn.

“For the first time I had one-on-one training with specialists who taught everything about the instrument. I really enjoyed it.”

In 1996 he graduated with a degree in music education but felt he “wasn’t done playing yet”. He moved on to graduate school.

“I became a teacher’s assistant in the music programme at Western Michigan University and got my master’s in French horn performance in ’98.”

Mr Hayward returned to Bermuda, where he taught music at West End Primary School and Southampton Glebe Primary School. Two years later, when Mr Jones retired, he took over his job as head of music at Warwick Academy. In the middle of all that, he married his longtime sweetheart Roma.

“We met at a Salvation Army music camp outside of Toronto in 1990 and were married in 1999,” he said.

He remained at Warwick Academy for 15 years until a new opportunity arose.

“Lloyd Matthew, the executive director for Bermuda School of Music, approached me. He was to retire and asked what I thought about taking his position over.”

The school offers private and group lessons for children and adults in voice, guitar, steel pan, flute, clarinet, saxophone, the Suzuki string programme, piano, percussion and “all the brass”.

There are also two choirs affiliated with it — the Bermuda Chamber of Choir and the Bermuda School of Music Youth Choir, which just opened this year. Mr Hayward was excited by the prospect and started as the school’s executive director two years ago.

•Learn more: 296-5100, info@musicschoolbm, www.musicschool.bm