Dr. Jason McCool comes from a long line of Irishmen who have been asked, “is that your real last name?!” His wide-ranging academic interests center around cultural and racial memory in the United States, with forays into musical theater, the 1920s, Tin Pan Alley, modern jazz, Gustav Mahler, Irish singing, and the pianist Keith Jarrett, and his doctoral dissertation examined the racial resonances of "Hamilton: An American Musical."
He has presented papers at conferences at Boston University, Bridgewater State University, Harvard University, UNC Asheville, UNH, and Maynooth University in Ireland and toured as a trumpet player and vocalist with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. In 2018, he was invited to be a Writing Fellow at the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and he has contributed reviews for Washington, DC's Pink Line Project, Berklee's Jazz Perspectives, and the Boston Musical Intelligencer.
He has had a side career in arts event producing, having founded, curated, and hosted the 'pindrop sessions' event series with WGBH and WCRB, as well as the "LA Live" podcast with the PRX Podcast Garage, and he sits on the Mass Creative Leadership Council. He has worked as a professional actor, director, and theater producer in NYC, DC, and Boston, and he is a Helen Hayes Award-winning actor and proud member of Actors' Equity.
Dr. McCool has been delighted and honored to teach courses on popular music, classical music, and world music traditions in the Boston College Music Department since 2018, and for Woods College since 2020.
