Jef Van Durme was born into a musical family in Kemzeke-Waas (East Flanders) on 7 May 1907. He received his first music lessons (in piano and solfège) from his father. During the First World War he also took lessons from the organist in Sint-Niklaas. In 1914, the Van Durme family moved to Antwerp, where Jef later began his studies at the Sint-Jan Berchmanscollege, in 1918. One year later he also enrolled at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp. In 1923, he left the Sint-Jan Berchmanscollege. In that year he received his diploma in solfège (under Jan Broeckx). After harmony lessons from Lodewijk De Vocht and Edward Verheyen, he also earned his diploma in this discipline (1927). In 1928, Jef Van Durme completed his studies in keyboard (with De Vos and Lenaerts). He also studied counterpoint, fugue and orchestration with Flor Alpaerts.

After several successful performances of his compositions, the Antwerp Musicians’ Association awarded him the Fester Prize in 1929 for his Sonata for violin and piano. In 1931-32, Jef Van Durme set out in a more modern direction as a composer. In this period he studied for three months with Alban Berg in Vienna. Upon his return, he produced several important compositions. He was also active as a performing pianist and wrote articles for Radiopost. In 1935 he took a conducting course with Hermann Scherchen, who conducted his opera Remous in the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels in 1936. Van Durme’s work, Heldengedicht (Heroic Poem) won first prize at the International Festival for Contemporary Music in Prague (1935). From 1936 to 1944, he worked for the NIR (the Belgian broadcasting service) as a sound engineer. Van Durme received first prize for his Sinfonia da Camera in 1937 at the International Youth Competition held by the Philharmonic Society of Brussels.

After the war, Jef Van Durme wrote some forty compositions, one of which (the Second Ballade for orchestra) was performed at a festival in Philadelphia in 1952. In 1959, 1961-1962 and 1963, the Ministry of Dutch-language Culture gave him a working grant. On 28 January 1965, Jef Van Durme died in Brussels.