John A. Lychner is an Associate Professor of Music Education and Director of the University Concert Band at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. After receiving the BME degree from Northeast Missouri State University, he received a Rotary International Foundation Scholarship to continue studies in music and education at the University of Nottingham in Nottingham, England. He taught elementary and middle school band, general music, and choir as well as high school marching band, concert band, and pep band in the Lindbergh School District in St. Louis, Missouri. After receiving an MA from Northeast Missouri State University where he directed the University Concert Band, he went on to complete a Ph.D. at Florida State University in music education. He was a conducting associate with the University Bands at Florida State and taught courses in Music Education. Additional summer studies were undertaken at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. While in Tallahassee, Lychner was Assistant Director of Bands at Rickards High School. He was woodwind coach and rehearsal assistant with the Tallahassee Symphony Youth Orchestra and has been a summer music camp instructor, church organist, and church choir director. He continues to be active as a clinician/guest conductor in Michigan and the upper mid-West. His research in the areas of aesthetic response to music and teacher education has been published in the Journal of Research in Music Education and the Journal of Band Research, among others. In addition, Lychner has served as state CMENC advisor for the Michigan Music Educators Association, as national co-chair for MENC's Learning and Development Special Research Interest Group, and as national co-chair for MENC’s Affective Response Special Research Interest Group.