Stephen Goacher, professor of music and director of Howard Payne University’s Winds of Triumph and Jazz Ensemble, has a summer of international performances ahead of him.
Goacher will play the saxophone and clarinet with the Temple Jazz Orchestra at the Montreux International Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, on July 4 and July 6.
On July 5, the TJO will represent the United States in concert at the Great Hall of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, at the U.N. “America Appreciation Day” celebration. The next week, on July 14, they will perform in Vienna at the Reigen Jazz Club, sharing the evening’s program with legendary jazz guitarist Pat Metheny.
“I am particularly looking forward to representing the U.S.A. at the U.N. in Geneva,” Goacher said. “I have been blessed to live in the greatest country that ever existed. I will be honored to play jazz, the music that represented the American Century.”
Goacher will round out the summer as he directs Winds of Triumph in special performances throughout Paris and London in conjunction with the London 2012 Olympic Games. Winds of Triumph is one of only five American university musical groups invited to perform at the summer games.
Goacher has had a long career in both classical and jazz music. In jazz and pop music, he has performed in the orchestras of The Temptations, Henry Mancini, Bob Hope, Julie Andrews, Lena Horne, Rosemary Clooney, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Andy Williams, Johnny Mathis and Tommy Dorsey. In classical music, he was in the touring Broadway Orchestra for “The King and I” with Yul Brynner. He also recorded a CD as an adjunct member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and performed in Carnegie Hall with the Cincinnati Symphony.
