Victor Goines

Director of Jazz Studies. Clarinetist, saxophonist, and educator Victor L. Goines has been a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Wynton Marsalis Septet since 1993. With these legendary ensembles he has toured worldwide and has performed on more than 20 releases, including Marsalis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Blood on the Fields (Columbia Records), Jazz at Lincoln Center’s CongoSquare (JALC) and the soundtracks for Ken Burns’ documentaries JAZZ, Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, and The War.

Goines is also an acclaimed solo artist. He leads his own quartet and quintet, having made with them seven recordings, including New Adventures and Love Dance, both on Criss Cross Records. Among the many noted jazz and popular artists with whom he has collaborated are Terence Blanchard, Ruth Brown, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, Bob Dylan, Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Green, Lionel Hampton, Freddie Hubbard, B.B. King, Lenny Kravitz, Branford Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, James Moody, Dianne Reeves, Marcus Roberts, Diana Ross, and Stevie Wonder. Additionally, Goines can be heard on the film scores for the motion pictures Undercover Blues, When Night Falls On Manhattan, and Rosewood as well as on music videos featuring Chick Corea, Garth Fagin, Bobby McFerrin, Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, and Linda Ronstadt.

A gifted composer as well, Goines has more than 50 original works to his credit. He was commissioned by the Juilliard School’s Dance Division for Base Line, which was premiered in 2002 and supported original choreography by Juilliard alumna Robert Battle. Additional commissions have come from Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Throughout his career, Goines has been deeply committed to the field of jazz education. In November 2007 he was named director of jazz studies and professor of music at Northwestern University. Prior to that appointment he was for seven years artistic director of the jazz program at the Juilliard School, and a faculty member in jazz clarinet and saxophone. During his tenure at Juilliard, the department expanded from a collaborative program with Jazz at Lincoln Center to include formal bachelor and master degree programs. He has also served on the faculties of Florida A & M University, the University of New Orleans, Loyola University in New Orleans, and Xavier University.

A native of New Orleans, Goines began clarinet studies at age eight. He received a bachelor of music education degree from Loyola University in New Orleans in 1984, and a master of music degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond in 1990. He is a Buffet Crampon and Vandoren Artist.