artist statement

a concise statement of my artistic vision and purpose

My name is David White. I am a composer. Jazz is my chosen medium and the jazz orchestra is my chosen instrument.

The jazz orchestra is itself a living, breathing, growing, striving organism. It is at once furious and joyful, powerful and gentle. It embodies both the rhythms of the African diaspora and the timbres of the new world. It speaks in colorful bursts and mournful yet hopeful sighs. It speaks in the dissonances that reflect the strife that birthed it and in the consonances that arise when human souls harmonize. The upshot of all this is a musical presence that is simultaneously ancient and contemporary. A presence that confers its own wisdom upon the listener and imbues them with the ability to feel, think and see clearly as if for the first time.

The purpose of my work as an artist is to cultivate, harness and then unleash that music.