Dr. Michael White is a widely renown clarinetist, bandleader, composer, historian, musicologist and educator. He is considered one of the leading authorities and culture-bearers of traditional New Orleans jazz music. In 2015, White produced and performed on the album, New Orleans Brass Bands: Through the Streets of the City for the Smithsonian Institution. Dr White has also served as guest director for Jazz at Lincoln Center programs. He serves as the senior professor of African American music at Xavier University. In his career spanning over three decades, Dr. White has toured internationally and recorded with Wynton Marsalis, Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal, Paul Simon, and Marianne Faithful. He received the rank of Chevalier of Arts & Letters from the French government in 1995 and was awarded the 2008 Heritage Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts (the nation’s highest award in the traditional and folk arts). In 2010, he was named Humanist of the Year by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities . His local accolades include Clarinetist of the Year by Offbeat Magazine in 2010,13, 14, 15, and 16.