"My experience at QC was one that I will always cherish because it put me in direct contact with my mentor Jimmy Heath. After graduating from Berklee College of Music I wanted to study with a true master of jazz, and QC was the only place I considered. This relationship with Mr. Heath gave me more tools as a professional musician, and it's a relationship that continues today. I only hope I can continue to pass some of the knowledge and love that Mr. Heath shared with me with my students at QC."

When Antonio Hart was in ninth grade, the music and art programs were cut out of the public schools, taking away the only things that made school interesting for him. However, a friend who attended the Baltimore School for the Performing Arts arranged an audition for him. Hart considers this the beginning of his life as a young man and musician.

The academics and the music courses were very challenging at the Baltimore School, but after a period of adjustment, Hart started to grow. He gives much credit to his private teacher, Chris Ford. "Mr. Ford took me from the beginning to a level much higher than the average high school student." At school, Hart played a great deal of classical music, but began to feel more of a connection with jazz because of the people he saw playing it and the chance the music gave him to improvise.

Hart's real study of jazz began at the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he studied with Bill Pierce, Andy McGhee, and Joe Viola. These three teachers gave him the foundation he needed to develop into a professional musician. Hart spent many hours in the library listening to his favorite musicians; there were also many late nights playing in the practice room. Because of his experiences at the School for the Performing Arts, Hart believed it was important to have a balance between music and academia, so in his sophomore year at Berklee he became a music education major.

Among Hart's many friends at Berklee, the most important was Roy Hargrove. Together they spent three years touring the world and recording Hargrove's first three records. Hart considers Hargrove to be his brother in life and music and used him on his first recording, For the First Time.