HPU SCHOOL OF MUSIC AND FINE ARTS
Faculty Profile
Stephen Goacher
Stephen Goacher, Associate Professor of Music, is Director of Jazz Studies, Professor of Woodwinds, and conductor of Winds of Triumph, a church music instrumental ensemble which travels in music ministry throughout Texas.
Goacher was featured as Saxophone Soloist and in Woodwind Performance Lecture Recital for the 2003 Conference of The North American Saxophone Alliance.
He presented a Guest Faculty Recital at Vanguard University of Southern California on 5 Woodwind instruments in April, 2003. He appeared as soloist in Aspen, Colorado before the 48th Annual Conference of the American Bandmaster's Association performing with the Fort Collins Wind Symphony on 6 different instruments June, 2000.
The Howard Payne University Jazz Ensemble, under Goacher's direction, performed for the Opening Ceremonies of the ATSSB/Texas Music Educator's Association 2003 Convention in San Antonio.
Goacher recorded on oboe, soprano saxophone and tenor saxophone on a Telarc CD of music of George Gershwin as an adjunct member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with the CSO in Carnegie Hall. He was the alto saxophonist with The Eugene Rousseau Saxophone Quartet and recorded an album of chamber music with the Rousseau Quartet on Crest Records. Goacher was the founder of the Cincinnati Saxophone Quartet and was also Principal Oboe with the Loveland (Colorado) Chamber Orchestra. He has appeared in concert as solo flutist with Henry Mancini. As a musician with Broadway touring orchestras, he was bassoonist with Yul Brenner in The King and I, and multiple woodwinds in Guys and Dolls, Cabaret, A Chorus Line, Will Rogers Follies, La Cage Aux Folle, Grand Hotel and others. The popular show acts for which he has performed multiple woodwinds include: Julie Andrews, Rosemary Clooney, Lena Horne, Johnny Mathis, Bob Hope, Andy Williams, and Steve Lawrence and Edy Gorme. He has played in the saxophone section of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and toured as a rock and roll tenor saxophonist with The Temptations.
As a conductor he led the Steve Goacher Concert Band which performed under the auspices of American Federation of Musicians Local #1 and the Cincinnati Park Board. From 1997 to 2000 he was Musical Director and Conductor of the Loveland Colorado Civic Band; and twice Guest Conductor of the Fort Collins Wind Symphony. In 1997 he founded the Northern Colorado New Horizon's Band, a beginning band program for senior citizens.
Goacher has previously taught on the faculties of Stephen F. Austin State University, Kansas State University, and Northern Kentucky University. His education includes a BA at UCLA; Master of Music at Texas Christian University; and 56 hours toward a Doctor of Musical Arts at Indiana University. He was twice awarded Honors in the annual Atwater-Kent Young Artist Competition at UCLA; was the first person awarded a Master of Music in Woodwinds from TCU; and was the first doctoral candidate at Indiana University permitted to present degree recitals on multiple woodwinds.