Dr. Michael White is a jazz clarinetist, bandleader, composer, jazz historian and educator that plays classic New Orleans jazz in the George Lewis style. Dr. White has served as guest director at several Jazz at Lincoln Center concerts relating to traditional New Orleans jazz. Dr. White shares his musical philosophy, "...one of the lessons that I learned, and I try to teach this to my students, is that one of the values of listening to jazz, especially New Orleans jazz, is not just for the danceable nature and the great music that it is, but also because of the lessons that it teaches and that can be used today. And one of those great lessons is that you have to improvise. You have to be able to take what comes and make something good happen with it."