Dr. Michael White is a renowned clarinetist, bandleader, composer, historian, and educator regarded as a leading authority of traditional New Orleans jazz. In 2015 he produced and performed on New Orleans Brass Bands: Through the Streets of the City for the Smithsonian Institution and has served as a guest director for Jazz at Lincoln Center . Formerly a senior professor of African American music at Xavier University of Louisiana, White has toured internationally for more than three decades and recorded with Wynton Marsalis, Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal, Paul Simon, and Marianne Faithfull. He was named Chevalier of Arts & Letters by the French government (1995), received the Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (2008), was honored as Humanist of the Year by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (2010), and was repeatedly recognized as Clarinetist of the Year by OffBeat Magazine.