Students studying music or participating in vocal or instrumental activities at Kansas University this year will see some new faces. KU’s department of music and dance has filled three key vacancies on its faculty.

The new hires are John Lynch, director of bands; John Paul Johnson, director of choral activities; and Timothy Hankewich, interim director of orchestral activities.

Lynch comes to KU from Northwestern University in Chicago, where he was associate director of bands. He was also music director of the Northshore Concert Band in Wilmette, Ill. He is a clarinetist, clinician, conductor and composer.

He has a bachelor’s degree in music education from Indiana University; a master’s degree in music education from the Eastman School of Music in New York; and a doctorate degree in wind conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in Ohio.

Johnson come to KU with 19 years of experience as a conductor, clinician and adjudicator. He was director of choral activities and music professor at Southwest Texas State University. He has been conductor-in-residence at Chopin Academy of Music in Poland and Trinity College of Music in London.

He has a bachelor’s degree in music and a master’s degree in music education from Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pa., and a doctorate degree in philosophy in curriculum and instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Hankewich is associate conductor of the Kansas City Symphony and will continue in that capacity in addition to his interim position at KU. Before coming to Kansas City, he was a conducting apprentice with the Oregon Symphony.

He earned a doctorate degree in orchestral conducting from Indiana University, where he was awarded a full study scholarship and a Presser Foundation Scholarship.