Victor Goines

A renowned jazz saxophonist and clarinetist, Goines has been a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and the Wynton Marsalis Septet he was named President & CEO of Jazz St. Louis in September 2023.

Clarinetist, saxophonist, and educator Victor L. Goines is a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Wynton Marsalis Septet since 1993, touring throughout the world and recording over twenty-one releases, including Marsalis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning recording Blood on the Fields (Columbia Records, 1997) and The Ever Fonky Lowdown (2020), Marsalis and Eric Clapton (2011), Jazz at Lincoln Center’s A Swingin’ Sesame Street Celebration (2020), The Fifties: A Prism (2020), Black, Brown and Beige (2020), The Music of Wayne Shorter (2020), Jazz for Kids (2019), Swing Symphony (2019), Una Noche con Ruben Blades (2018), United We Swing (2018), Handful of Keys (2017), The Music of John Lewis (2017), The Abyssinian Mass (2016), Big Band Holidays (2016), Live in Cuba (2015) all from Blue Engine Records and, as well as the soundtracks for Ken Burns’ acclaimed documentaries, JAZZ, 1999; Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, 2004 and The War, 2007. Goines has collaborated on three video projects with Cuban clarinetist Janio Abreu. Two videos, Nuestra Herencia Musical (Our Musical Heritage) (2018), Juntos Otra Vez (Together Again) (2019), are with Abreu’s ensemble Aires de Concerto; and the third, Vic and I (2020), is with La Orquesta de Cåmara de la Habana conducted by Daiana Garcia. He is an acclaimed solo artist and leads his own quartet. As a leader, Mr. Goines has ten recordings including A Dance at The Mardi Gras Ball (2016), Morning Swing (2013), and Twilight (2012), all from Rosemary Joseph Records.

A gifted composer, Goines has more than 200 original works to his credit. His commissions include The Four Winds Suite (2021) and Suite for Bird (2014) for the Music Institute of Chicago; Untamed Elegance (2016) and Crescent City (2014) featuring Branford Marsalis for Jazz at Lincoln Center; Benny: Then, Now, Forever! (2009) for The ASCAP Foundation and Columbia College Chicago with support from the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, and Base Line (2002) for the Juilliard School to support the original choreography by Juilliard alumnus Robert Battle and other countless works for hire.

Mr. Goines has recorded, performed, and collaborated with many noted jazz and popular artists such as Terence Blanchard, Ruth Brown, Paquito D’Rivera, Dianne Reeves, Jack McDuff, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Freddie Hubbard, B.B. King, Branford Marsalis, Delfeayo, Ellis Marsalis, Jason Marsalis, Jimmy Heath, James Moody, Dianne Reeves, Marcus Roberts, Wayne Shorter, Chucho Valdez, 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, and a host of other renowned musicians and ensembles.

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 in Evanston, Illinois. Prior to that appointment, Goines was for seven years inaugural 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 of Music degrees. 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, he began studying clarinet at age eight. He received his Bachelor of Music Education from Loyola University in New Orleans in 1984, and his Master of Music from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond in 1990.