Country Music Artist Lari White Honored With Frost School Of Music Distinguished Alumnus Award Posthumously  

On January 23, 2018 GRAMMY Award-winning country music artist and Frost School of Music alumna Lari White (BM'88) lost her brief battle with cancer at only 52 years old. A loving, friend, wife, mother, Nashville and Broadway music icon and actor, Lari left an indelible mark on everyone she met,

To honor her extraordinary contributions and achievements, Frost School Dean Shelton G. Berg announced earlier this year, that Lari White would receive, posthumously, the Frost Distinguished Alumnus Award. In commenting Dean Berg stated: "Lari was one of the most beautiful human beings I've ever known. Every fiber in her body was about beauty and love. She was a fabulous songwriter, singer, musician-everything that she was came outin her music. There's no making sense of why someone so wonderful is taken so soon."

The award was presented to her husband, Chuck Cannon, Friday, April 19 during a concert by the award-winning Frost American Music Ensemble, at the Frost School's Clarke Recital Hall. The program featured a video tribute which included testimonials from some of the music industry's top performing artists, songwriters and executives including: Frost faculty member Tim Smith, along with Frost alum Grand Funk Railroad's Tim Cashion, composer and guitarist John DeFaria, award-winning singer/songwriter producers Anna Wilson and Monty Powell, manager and friend Bill Carter, plus Music Publisher Donald Conrad, and singer/songwriters Mac Davis and Rodney Foster. Accepting the award on behalf of his late wife Chuck Cannon stated: "She loved music more than anything, and she loved people. She was the first woman to produce a million selling record, she really was a trailblazer. Thank you to the Frost School of Music for this honor for Lari."

Chuck spontaneously walked on stage, to join Frost School student Christina Martino as she sang, his and Lari's duet, "That's How You Know When You're In Love". There was not a dry eye in the room.