Victor Goines

b. 6 August 1961, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Studying clarinet from the age of eight, Goines began adding various members of the saxophone family to his instrumental arsenal while attending high school. In 1980 he studied clarinet and saxophones at Loyola University, graduating in 1984. Shortly before graduation, he had become interested in jazz and sought tuition from Ellis Marsalis who soon inducted him into his working quartet. In 1987 Goines extended his studies, this time at Virginia Commonwealth University. While there, he occupied any spare time by playing in New York with artists such as Lionel Hampton, Bobby Watson, Jack McDuff and singer Ruth Brown, and he also played in the orchestra for the Broadway show Black And Blue. Back in his home town in 1991, he attracted considerable attention with award- and competition-winning performances and soon thereafter made his first solo album. As a performer, he toured with Wynton Marsalis in 1993/4, and worked with Marcus Roberts, Terence Blanchard, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, playing clarinet, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones. Goines’ recording credits include appearances on sessions with Ellis and Wynton Marsalis (including the latter’s Blood On The Fields), Roberts, the LCJO, Donald Harrison and Damon Short, and with singers Brown, Germaine Bazzle and Irma Thomas. He has also played on scores for films and television and on numerous music videos, including those by Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville, Dianne Reeves, Bobby McFerrin and Chick Corea, and Wynton Marsalis. From his early days as a professional musician, Goines was interested in pursuing a career as a jazz educator and worked at the universities of Xavier, Loyola and New Orleans. He has conducted workshops and clinics in New Orleans and at Cornell University among many venues. Late in 2000, he was appointed Director of Juilliard Jazz Studies, a new collaborative venture by the Juilliard School and Jazz at Lincoln Center.