Tony White

Tony White is a native New Yorker and through his parents, he was exposed to all types of music at a very early age. By the time he was 12, Tony had mastered the clarinet well enough to perform the Mozart Clarinet Concerto in concert, and was also chosen as first chair clarinetist in the all county wind ensemble. By high school he was chosen for the all state wind ensemble, but he was ready to go in another direction and picked up the saxophone..

   Influenced by all the greats, he was admitted to the prestigious BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC in Boston MA. There he studied with the great Andy McGee and Joe Viola. Along with sax, he also studied theory, arranging, and composition.

   Out of school Tony formed his first touring band, SPECTRUM. The band also featured the outstanding bassist MICHAEL MANRING. Spectrum toured the U.S., eventually opening up for B.J. THOMAS, and DR. HOOK.

   He soon left that group to be co-founder of the band CHEERS. One of Atlantic City's most sucsessful groups. The band won ATLANTIC CITY'S MAGAZINE Lounge Act of the year for 3 consecutive years.

   At this time he also became a member of Philadelphia's busiest horn section, THE ALLIED HORNS.

   Tony moved back to the New York area in the early 90's, and at this time he got a call to play with 10,000 MANIACS. He toured extensively with the group, including dates with, PAUL McCARTNEY, MICHAEL STIPE, EN VOUGE, BOYS 2 MEN, SOUL ASYLUM, DON HENELY, KENNY LOGGINS, P.M. DAWN, THE WALLFLOWERS, WORLD PARTY, ZAP MAMMA, etc... His arrangement of "TO SIR WITH LOVE" performed by NATALIE MERCHANT and 10,000 MANIACS along with MICHAEL STIPE was featured on the MTV INAUGURAL BALL, and was later put out on a live CD, with proceeds benefiting the ROCK THE VOTE campaign.

   During this time, Tony also had the opportunity to play with PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON. The first time being at a pre-election rally at Garden State park in Cherry Hill N.J., and again at the first inaugural at the Great Southern Ball.

   Tony released his self-titled recording debut in 1997, co-produced by DAVID IVORY, (BLUE ORCHID 2503) to rave reviews(see reviews and quotes). The disc features 8 original compositions and covers a wide and varied musical spectrum. His next release will soon be out, as he continues to compose, produce, and perform. Tony plays all the woodwinds, piano, guitar, bass and drums, as well as having a collection of various flutes and percussion instruments from around the world, which he utilizes in his home recording studio.

   Most recently he traveled to Italy to play in world music festivals in Milan and Torino, with BASHIR ATTAR and the MASTER MUSICIANS OF JOJUCHA. This ancient Moroccan music came to the western world through people like, Paul Bowels, William Burroughs, Ornette Coleman and Brian Jones of the ROLLING STONES.

   Tony has also been playing with the group HITCHHIKER. The group was featured on the RYKODISK CD KEROUAC; KICKS, JOY, DARKNESS. HITCHHIKER has performed numerous times at the KNITTING FACTORY in New York, including performances with legendary composer, multi-instrumentlist DAVID AMRAM. MR. AMRAM was the first to fuse jazz and the spoken word along with JACK KEROUAC.

   Tony is currently studying Film Scoring in the LA area, and when not working he enjoys biking, reading, painting and photography.