CHICAGO, Ill. --- A new work by composer, clarinetist and music educator Victor Goines has been commisioned by the ASCAP Foundation in celebration of the centennial of ASCAP member and jazz giant Benny Goodman (May 30, 1909 - June 13, 1986). The work will be premiered during 2009, the centennial year, by a major jazz ensemble in conjunction with official centennial activities taking place in Washington, DC, New York and Chicago, Goodman's hometown. Goines envisions his work as a musical depiction of Goodman's life in a 30-minute, five-movement work for jazz orchestra.

ASCAP member Victor Goines is a celebrated composer, saxophonist/clarinetist and Northwestern University Artistic Director for the Jazz Studies program. A native of New Orleans, he is a longtime member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. He has maintained an active solo performing career, and has performed, recorded or otherwise collaborated with a host of maor musical artists that includes Wynton Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, The Smithsonian Masterworks Orchestra, Terence Blanchard, Ruth Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, and Dianne Reeves, among many others.

Benny Goodman, known as the "King of Swing," was a clarinetist, bandleader and composer who remains one of the all-time great figures in jazz. A best-selling recording star, Goodman helped to raise public awareness of such jazz virtuosos as Lionel Hampton, Charlie Christian, Billie Holiday, Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa. His 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert recording is regarded as a landmark American live music recording. Goodman recorded countless sessions in Big Band and small group configurations, made a number of classical music recordings, appeared in many motion pictures and was, himself, the subject of The Benny Goodman Story, a 1955 film starring Steve Allen and Donna Reed.