NEW ORLEANS — On Tuesday, October 15, the Greater New Orleans Foundation honored jazz clarinetist and educator Dr. Michael White with a $10,000 prize as the 2024 COHN | GNOF | NOLA | ARTS Award program winner and awarded 11 nonprofits with smaller grants at a special reception at the Marigny Opera House. The COHN | GNOF | NOLA | ARTS Award is made possible due to a generous bequest from Marianne and Dr. Isidore Cohn, Jr. and given annually.
“We are thrilled to honor Dr. Michael White as the 2024 COHN | GNOF | NOLA | ARTS Award winner,” said Andy Kopplin, President and CEO, Greater New Orleans Foundation. “Our advisory committee selected Dr. White because his body of work over the last three decades truly speaks to the artistic brilliance reflected in our community and inspires us to be our best.”
“We are delighted to recognize Dr. Michael White, an accomplished and multi-faceted musician who best represents the rich and diverse talent within the New Orleans creative community,” said Ian J. Cohn. “In his illustrious career as a clarinetist spanning over three decades, Dr. White has endlessly contributed to Jazz music in New Orleans and has been a culture-bearer for this beloved genre all over the world. Dr. White’s dedication to his music, in both his collaborative and solo works as a bandleader, composer, musicologist, Jazz historian, and educator, cements him as an authority in his own right.”
Cohn continued, “The Cohn Family is grateful to the Greater New Orleans Foundation and members of the advisory committee for their guidance and involvement in making the vision of this annual award possible. Together, we share a passion to discover and recognize artists from within the New Orleans community. In addition to this singular award, grants provided to several New Orleans-based community organizations are made possible by a fund established by our father/grandfather, Dr. Isidore Cohn, Jr. and his wife Marianne Cohn. We are confident that the awardees well represent their wishes and the legacy embodied in their gift.”
“It is a great honor for me to be recognized and selected to receive the 2024 COHN | GNOF | NOLA | ARTS Award. I have worked tirelessly for many years to further the cause of authentic New Orleans Jazz and this award will assist me with a couple of important projects that I have been working on,” said 2024 COHN | GNOF | NOLA | ARTS Award winner Dr. Michael White. “My sincere thanks goes to the Cohn Family and the Greater New Orleans Foundation. Your generosity will help my projects come into fruition and hopefully, impact the image, sound, and performance of this community’s greatest original art form—jazz.”
“I am proud to have volunteered on the panel that selected Dr. Michael White, a quintessential figure in New Orleans jazz, who epitomizes the city’s rich musical heritage as a clarinetist, bandleader, composer, and educator, as the recipient of the 2024 COHN | GNOF | NOLA | ARTS Award,” said Joycelyn Reynolds, COHN | GNOF | NOLA | ARTS Award Committee Member. “From his serendipitous encounter with Kid Sheik Colar in Jackson Square to his tenure at Xavier University, White is an ambassador of New Orleans music and culture. Leading three dynamic bands and performing at prestigious venues like New York’s Village Vanguard, White’s impact resonates far beyond his native city. With 17 albums over 29 years, including the acclaimed ‘Dancing in the Sky’ and ‘Jazz from the Soul of New Orleans,’ his legacy is firmly entrenched in the annals of jazz history.”
In conjunction with this announcement, the Foundation also announced COHN | GNOF | NOLA | ARTS awards will be made to the following nonprofits: Arts New Orleans, Cafe Reconcile, Communities in Schools, Dancing Grounds, Goat in the Road, LSU Health Science Center, Marigny Opera House, Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, New Orleans Museum of Art, Ogden Museum of Art, and Touro Synagogue.
Prior winners of COHN | GNOF | NOLA | ARTS include painter Aaron Belka (2021), Sculptor Ma’Po Kinnord (2022), and Founder of the Marigny Opera House Dave Hulbert (2023).
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