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Victor Haskins

Victor is in the business of making melodies and changing lives

About Me

Victor Haskins is an international performer, visionary, multi-instrumentalist, improviser, sound artist, composer, arranger, bandleader, interdisciplinary collaborator, and educator.

Victor’s main performing projects are “Victor Haskins & Moving Sound Pictures” and “Victor Haskins’ Skein”. Moving Sound Pictures is an innovative, one-man-band where Victor extemporaneously improvises intricate, interactive soundscapes and spontaneous compositions. Elements of existing artistic traditions from around the world are evoked, repurposed, and filtered through his imagination. Additionally, Victor frequently collaborates with dancers in this setting, improvising collectively across mediums to orchestrate a powerful, cinematic experience. In Victor Haskins’ Skein, Victor is joined by a live bassist and drummer to explore the possibilities of collective improvisation through the forum of compositions and arrangements he has crafted for the ensemble, delighting and intriguing audiences with intense auditory interplay. Victor is known for his masterful use of the cornet, and unique integration of sound design triggered by electronic wind instrument (EWI) in both of these projects.

Some notable highlights from Mr. Haskins’ performance career thus far include the creation of his own improvisational concept—”Melodic Improvisation”—as well as an independently-conceived music genre that is based on that concept, called “ImproviStory” (which later evolved into his current project, “Moving Sound Pictures”). He released his debut album of all original compositions—“The Truth”—on 32 Bar Records in March of 2013, and will release his second album of original compositions—“Showing Up”—in February of 2019.

Victor has been featured at the Richmond Jazz Festival (2013-2015), Richmond’s 2nd Street Festival (2011, 2016), the Elkhart Jazz Festival (2014), the Apex Jazz Festival (2014), and the Festival of New Trumpet Music (2014). He has performed in venues such as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Millennium Stage (Washington, D.C.), the W.E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts (Richmond, VA), Ewell Hall (Williamsburg, VA), the Jazz Gallery (NYC), iBeam (NYC), Résonance Café (Montreal, CA), Diese Onze (Montreal, CA), Snug Harbor (New Orleans, LA), the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Durban, South Africa), Teatro SESI Rio Vermelho (Salvador, Bahia, BR) and others. In addition, some of Victor's activities are supported by grants from the National Endowment of the Arts, and the Virginia Commission for the Arts.

As an educator, Victor currently serves as the Director of In-School Jazz Ensembles for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Adjunct Professor of Jazz Trumpet at the College of William & Mary, and the Director of the Jazz Ensemble at the College of William & Mary. Previously, he served on the faculty of the inaugural Izmir International Jazz Camp (2012). Haskins has presented clinics and masterclasses on a variety of music-related topics at institutions including (but not limited to) the Jazz Education Network Conference, the University of Georgia, Virginia Commonwealth University, the Royal Academy of Music, Conservatoir Nadia et Lili Boulanger, the University of Richmond, TEDxVCU, and TEDxLizardCreek.

Victor Haskins has performed and/or recorded with a wide range of artists, including (but not limited to) Marc Cary, Craig Handy, k.d. lang, Roger Lewis (Dirty Dozen Brass Band), Alberto Limonta Pérez, Lonnie Liston-Smith, Delfeayo Marsalis, Jason Moran, Jason Mraz, Phil Wiggins, and the Temptations.

Victor holds a Jazz Studies/Performance degree from Virginia Commonwealth University where he completed the 4-year music program in only 3 years (the first and only person to ever accomplish this feat).

Victor is proud to be sponsored by Eclipse Trumpets, and Denis Wick mouthpieces.