Math teacher connects with his teen-age students when he transofmrs into rock musician
His teen-age students may be less than impressed by high school math teacher Brian Kukan’s skills of solving complicated mathematical equations in the classroom. But the Uniontown native really strikes a “chord” and makes a connection with his students when he tells them stories about dancing across a stage at a Los Angeles, Calif., nightclub to jam with his rock band.
Kukan answered questions about his double life during a recent telephone interview from his home.
“It’s interesting when some of my students come up to me and ask me questions about music,” said Kukan, now a resident of North Hollywood and a teacher at John Burroughs High School in Burbank, near Los Angeles.
“They feel like they can talk to me like a human being rather than a teacher to student relationship,” he added. “It also seems to relax them from their anxieties of mathematics.”
Although he doubles as a musician at night, Kukan said he doesn’t leave music outside of the classroom. He’s always finding new ways to incorporate his love of music into his math lessons.
“I celebrate Pi Day (3.14) on March 14 with many different things, one being a school wide contest to see who can recite the most digits in pi,” he said. “This year’s winner was up to 384 decimal points officially, but he got up to about 500 and missed a number somewhere. I had students that kept pieces of paper with numbers for this contest, and one student even had the numbers around his ceiling so that he could look at them in his room.”
Kukan incorporates his music with his lessons by writing songs for the students like one about pi that he plays to the tune of The White Stripes’ “Fell in Love with a Girl.”
“In one verse I was able to squeeze in 57 digits because it goes with the rhythm of the music,” he said. “I try to make it interesting and memorable for them because so many kids have bad experiences with math because of their teachers. I want to make it easy and give them a good impression of math.”
Moving to California in 1999 just after his graduation from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in December 1998, Kukan, who is now 26 years old, had no job prospects other than the knowledge that the area was searching for math teachers. At the time, Kukan’s brother was going to be attending college in the Los Angeles area so he decided to join his brother in the journey.
“He was an exceptional child,” said Bob Kukan of Uniontown, Brian’s father. “He came home from school and did his homework before anything else. In seventh grade, he was the outstanding student in Laurel Highlands Junior High School.”
Although he graduated from IUP with a teaching certificate, Kukan always had a love for music. While Brian’s heart lies in the bass guitar, he’s also proficient on the acoustic guitar as well.
“I own a keyboard, not that I play it though,” said Kukan jokingly. “I mainly use it to help my ear and put chords together. I’d like to sing, but right now it’s only in the shower. My voice needs a lot of strengthening.”
Currently, Kukan spends his free time working with various artists in the area on their music. He does a few shows with a country artist, Tawny McCorkle, and also works with his high school show choir.
But Kukan’s favorite aspect of his music is playing with the Reese Place Band. After meeting Rob Gallagher, guitarist for the Reese Place Band, another member of the group, Mike Lizarraga, called Kukan and asked him if he wanted to perform with the group.
“I had been playing with Rob for about two years, and I had already picked up on some songs,” Kukan said. “It was really exciting to perform with the group because everyone’s really cool in the band, and we all get along. I really enjoy the time spent.”
“He’s a great guy,” Lizarraga said. “He’s amazing. Every time he comes in to record he’s using a new technique, and he keeps surprising me every time.”
Many of the members are native to the California circuit and then Kukan completes the lineup from the hills of Pennsylvania to add his charismatic bass sounds to the band.
Taking its roots from traditional rock ‘n’ roll, the group has been influenced by such artists as the Dave Matthews Band that draws on soft melodic rock tones, rather than fast-paced high guitar riffs.
With great quality and lyrics, Kukan’s addition to the Reese Place Band has made him quite happy.
“The ability to play and add something to a mixture of other people’s inputs and use my talent as a bass player is one of my favorite things,” Kukan said. “It’s great to enrich my life through music and perform.”
Although Kukan hasn’t been composing many songs lately, he has plans to take some time this summer to work on some compositions.
“I jotted down a few notes here and there, but right now I improvise for the moment,” he said. “Music really opens me up to communicate with other people. My friends and I will get together every once in a while and just jam. We can have a whole conversation without one word being said. We’re making a connection with each other.”
Many different types of music, including Phish, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, influence Kukan. He says that he’s very interested in what he calls “jam bands” that rely on their improvisations at concerts to keep their music original.
“There’s no structured songs when they go to improvising, and they can let loose and take the music wherever they want to be,” he said. “It’s all about the show, and it’s an experience in itself.”
The Reese Place Band currently is working hard around the Los Angeles scene to promote its music. However, artists have a difficult time getting their music heard.
“The LA music scene is bad when you’ve been together over a year and haven’t booked many shows,” Lizarraga said. “Most clubs require you to pre-sell tickets, and some bands just can’t sell the tickets so they end up paying to play. Most of the bands only get about 40 minutes for a set, too.”
Kukan, son of Robert (Bob) and Paulette Kukan, has an older brother, Bruce, who is still a resident of Uniontown; a younger brother, John who is a resident of Fairborn, Ohio; and a sister, Bobby Jo Chapman, who lives in Charleston, W.Va. Along with many other relatives, his grandmothers, Josephine Kukan and Alberta Chuma, still reside in Fayette County.
Although Kukan is not married, he has had a girlfriend for two years now whom he met while working with his high school show choir. Jennifer Porter, a choreographer for the choir, had struck up a conversation with him at rehearsal one day, and they two have been together since.
“She just popped down and started talking to me one day while I was tuning my bass.”
The Reese Place Band is offering free demo CDs for anyone who would like a copy. Just contact Mike Lizarraga at 818-445-9190 or email him at reeseplaceband@aol.com.