Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Prior to joining University of Pittsburgh's PhD Jazz Studies program in 2024, Elad Sobol taught in Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China from 2015-2024. He was one of the founding team members of the Jazz Department there, teaching a wide range of courses in Mandarin. He was also very active in the local music scene, collaborating with locals and performing in a variety of professional settings, leading pop, funk, swing, salsa, big band and smooth jazz fusion groups. His arrangements have been performed at a number of Chinese jazz festivals, and he released a full-length studio album Vicissitudes in 2022. He has frequently been invited to lecture to the public on music in Mandarin, most prominent of which is a TEDx talk.
He has published and peer-reviewed for JENR, presented at various academic conferences, worked on Sam Rivers’ archives at University of Pittsburgh Library's Special Collections, and is currently a co-editor at Society for Ethnomusicology’s graduate student journal, Rising Voices. His current research trajectory focuses on jazz and Western popular forms as global music and the relationship to the sociopolitical, economic and cultural environment in which music is created, performed, disseminated and consumed, particularly in the context of modern China. He served with Peace Corps in China from 2013-2015. He earned his California Teaching Credential in Music Education in 2010 from San Jose State University, and his Bachelor’s Degree in Music from UC Santa Cruz in 2006. He plays alto and bari saxes, flute, EWI, dabbles on Chinese flutes and loves collecting percussion instruments from around the world.
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Lessons From the Other Side of the World: What I Learned From Teaching Jazz in China
Wednesday, January 7, 2026
1:30 PM - 1:55 PM CST
