Brent White

Brent White is a lifelong Philadelphian and jazz enthusiast. Mr. White understands Philadelphia’s rich cultural community: its leaders, history, musicians, connectors, and politics. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Widener University, a master’s degree in Jazz Studies from the University of the Arts, and a certificate in nonprofit management from LaSalle University. He has toured nationwide and internationally as a freelance trombonist to the world’s largest jazz festivals, yet possesses the local field experience and relationships with many of Philadelphia’s nonprofits, with a career focus that can be summarized in one word -- jazz. 
 
Previously, Mr. White has worked as the Education Program Manager at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, designing and implementing outreach education programming for Philadelphia students. Mr. White has taught jazz in the Philadelphia Prison System, the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts, in the Camden New Jersey City School system, and as Director of Jazz Orchestra at Drexel University. Residencies included the Juilliard School of Music outreach department (Bay Area Tour), where he provided jazz workshops in juvenile detention centers, children’s hospitals, and schools in the San Francisco Bay area. 
 
As a trombonist, Mr. White has toured with the likes of John Legend (Indonesia), Kindred Family Soul (South Africa), and the Sun Ra Arkestra (Europe). Mr. White has been welcomed to the stage by Lady Alma, and has recorded in-studio for Patti Labelle. Mr. White is no stranger to the Philadelphia and New York jazz scenes, where currently he performs with Orrin Evans’ Captain Black Big Band, Josh Lawrence and Color Theory, and the Fresh Cut Orchestra, among other ensembles. Most recently, Mr. White was a 2022 Innovation Fellow through the Library Company of Philadelphia. His latest CD, “code-switching,” explored how Francis “Frank” Johnson (1792 - 1844) -- a leading American musician pre-Civil War -- and his band engaged in musical “code-switching” by performing the same compositions differently before Black and white audiences.