Dr Lynch is the newly appointed Associate Professor and Wind Ensemble Conductor at the Con. Luke Gilmour recently caught up with John and asked him a few questions about his new appointment and what he is looking forward to at the Con.

Why Sydney?

I visited Sydney and toured Australia with my partner for the first time in 2008 and fell in love with both! We visited Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Kangaroo Island. My residency last October at the Con solidified my first impressions. I found everyone I met to be really amazing: Warm, welcoming, interesting, engaging, and fun! The Con is a world-class music school with strong visionary leadership, and highly talented students and faculty. I want to become part of their future. I also love the international nature of Sydney, the progressive vibe, the creativity, the natural beauty, and the amazing quality of life. It feels like the perfect fit both personally and professionally!

What are you most looking forward to?

I’m most looking forward to working at the Sydney Conservatorium with the many new students and colleagues !I’m also really excited to be living in a new country, and the possibility of making great new friends and becoming a part of a tight knit band community.

How did you work with school and community band directors in Georgia? How do you hope to do this in Sydney?

I formed many great friendships with my colleagues in Georgia (and throughout the U.S.), and enjoyed visiting them regularly and working with their bands. I plan to visit schools throughout Sydney and Australia, and want to bring colleagues and students to the Con as much as possible. I really enjoy collaborating and am open to new ideas and projects!

What ideas, plans are you hoping to achieve?

First, I am eager to continue the development of the world-class ensemble that is the Sydney Conservatorium Wind Symphony, and am grateful to Stephen Williams and others who have led this amazing ensemble before me. I would like to take them on tour throughout Sydney, Australia, Asia, and beyond. In terms of the wind band program at the Con, it’s a brand new position so the possibilities are limitless! I’ve always been a dreamer so once I get the “lay of the land,” I look forward to working hard to develop one of the world’s leading centres for wind bands and wind band music. I’m already in discussions with Sydney ABODA to co-sponsor an international conducting symposium, and am also working with the leadership of WASBE to submit a bid to host their 2017 convention. We’ll have a new masters and doctoral degree in wind conducting at the Con tailored to both local directors and international conductors. I would like to get as many talented band directors into those programs as possible. I also plan to do lots of commissioning as I love new music! I have a relationship with the Naxos company, so a recording project is also in the works. The Con has contracted my good friend international wind band conductor Tim Reynish (Royal Northern Conservatory, U.K.) to rehearse and perform the first two concerts of the upcoming semester until I arrive in late May/June. Anyone who is interested in attending rehearsals and concerts with Tim (and later with me) is always welcome!

Any advice for school and community band directors?

The advice I try to follow for myself is to never stop learning and growing. I gave up a wonderful position at the University of Georgia because I seek further growth and new challenges. I try to instil that same desire to learn and grow in my students, and strive to raise the bar for them (and for me) each and every day. As conductor teachers that includes becoming better musicians and better physical conductors (through daily practice, score study, attending masterclasses), learning more about the repertoire for our medium from around the globe, continuing to hone and refine our ensemble sound concept and rehearsal techniques, creating more compelling performances that touch ensemble members and audiences alike, and taking a great deal of care and interest in the individuals in our classes and ensembles. I know I’m going to learn so much from my new friends and colleagues in Australia, and I can’t wait to meet everyone and get started!

Choosing repertoire for the start of the school year - key criteria/considerations?

I consider repertoire choice one of the most important things we do each year. Of course the repertoire we choose is our curriculum and we should seek to place a wide array of only the finest works in front of our students. I believe that we teach kids, not bands (the importance of what the individual students in our ensembles learn from us), and that while band is our medium, our subject is music. At the end of their time with us, what have our students learned about the art form of music? Playing their second trumpet parts really well is important, but it’s not enough. We want to nurture knowledgeable, feelingful musicians who will have a lifelong engagement with music. We achieve this through the study and performance of diverse, high quality repertoire. Specifically, great music has both sensuous (the emotional and subjective elements) and formal values (strong structure, quality treatment of the musical elements, originality).

John P. Lynch, D.M.A.

Dr. John Lynch is the Director of Bands and Professor of Music at The University of Georgia where he guides all aspects of the band and graduate and wind conducting programs. Previous positions include those at the University of Kansas, Northwestern University, and Emory University.

He has ten years of high school teaching experience in his native New York State where he was the national recipient of the Stanbury Award for outstanding teaching and conducting. Dr.Lynch holds degrees from Indiana University, the Eastman School of Music, and CCM. He has conducted throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia including invited tours of China, Argentina and Europe, and has performed at the national conferences of CBDNA, ABA, MENC, The Midwest Clinic, and at GMEA, KMEA and Interlochen. Recent conducting engagements include the West Point Band, the Army Field Band, and the United States Marine Band. Dr. Lynch has held residencies at the Vivaldi Conservatory in Alessandria, Italy, the Conservatory in Vilnius, Lithuania, and the University of Costa Rica. He has three recordings on the Naxos label including the debut of the Wind Band Classics Series. His recordings have been broadcast throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. He is a member of the American Bandmasters Association, CBDNA, Phi Beta Mu, and WASBE, and is the recent recipient of The American Prize and UGA’s Creative Research Medal, and a Northwestern Fellow for Teaching Excellence.

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