The following video and transcript first appeared on Fox 47 News in Lansing, Michigan; film and interview by Colin Jankowski.
I’m your MSU Neighborhood Reporter Colin Jankowski. You may recognize names like Actor George Clooney or Apple CEO Tim Cook. Now, one of our neighbors here at MSU will be represented alongside them in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Let’s meet Rodney T. Whitaker.
“Most of my years prior to coming to MSU were spent on the road traveling playing jazz professionally,” Whitaker said.
From Paris to Tokyo, MSU Director of Jazz Studies Rodney T. Whitaker has made a name for himself across the globe as a performer.
“You know it’s exciting to be inducted into the academy,” he said.
His name is now alongside some iconic ones throughout history as members of the academy like Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Rodney Whitaker makes it official, signing his name into the Book of Members, the same book signed by Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Martin Luther King, Jr., and every other member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since its founding in 1780.
Whitaker says it’s an honor that has given him more inspiration to continue.
“As I look at the people who have been inducted before and the people who have recently been inducted, I’m really awe-struck and humbled,” he said. “But it also gives me the fuel to keep going for another 50 years.”
Whitaker’s students tell me they’re excited to see him be recognized for his work.
“Like, that’s big to see him inducted with people like Martin Luther King,” Brian Allen said. “That was the biggest thing for me. So seeing him in there is a big deal.”
But, they say they’re not surprised.
“If you want to learn how to grow as much as you possibly can as a person, then have a conversation with Prof Whitaker,” Wyatt Forhan said. “Because not only will you grow as a musician, but as a person too.”
While Whitaker says the new honor has been humbling, it hasn’t changed him in the slightest.
“I’m always performing, I’m always touring,” he said. “I go to Europe, I go to Japan. I’m still quite active, but my main gig is cultivating the next generation of jazz musicians.”
