Tickets to a standing-room-only, intimate jazz performance featuring the legendary Marsalis family surely would be worth a pretty penny – if you could even get your hands on them. But a chance to watch their performance up close and personal and then take music lessons from them? Priceless.

First Lady Michelle Obama treated over 140 students from across the country to such a once-in-a-lifetime, never-forget-it opportunity, when she hosted them Tuesday at the first White House Jazz Studio. The students attended interactive educational workshops, dancing and playing their own instruments, as they learned about the history of jazz and the African Americans who created it. They also enjoyed performances by Grammy Award winner Wynton Marsalis, his father Ellis Marsalis and brothers Jason and Branford Marsalis, Paquito D’Rivera, Tony Madruga, Zach Brown, Kush Abadey and Elijah Easton, who is a high school student at the Duke Ellington School of Music in Washington D.C.

“Today’s event exemplifies what I think the White House, the people’s house, should be about,” Mrs. Obama said. “This is a place to honor America’s past, celebrate its present and create its future…. And what better example of this is there than jazz, America’s indigenous art form?”

The President and the First Lady have made it no secret that, unlike their predecessors, they plan to infuse the White House with art and cultural events that celebrate all races represented in the American population. To that end, Mrs. Obama noted that jazz was created “through the African American experience” and is now “performed and listened to by people of all ethnicities, backgrounds, ages and creeds.”

Mrs. Obama also shared the story of her introduction to jazz as a young, African American girl growing up in Chicago. Her grandfather, who went by the nickname “Southside,” blared jazz from speakers in every room of his house as loud as the volume dial would let him. Hoping to pass on an appreciation for jazz to her family’s next generation, the Mrs. Obama brought daughters Sasha and Malia to the Jazz Studio to make them “aware of all kinds of music, other than hip-hop.”

What do you think of Michelle Obama’s efforts to include African American performing arts like jazz in White House events? What effect will this have on the greater American public’s perception of African Americans and appreciation of African American contributions to our nation?  Tell us here.

-Megan Cosby, tvoneonline.com White House Correspondent

Megan Cosby is the fouder of Polichicks: The It Girl’s Guide to Politics, a nonpartisan political website for women.