Dr. Jason McCool earned his Ph.D. in Historical Musicology at Boston University, where he was awarded a full-tuition Dean's Fellowship, and the Boston University College of Fine Arts Musicology & Ethnomusicology Departmental Award. He has taught courses at Boston College and Boston University including The History of American Popular Music, Introduction to Music History and an undergraduate course on The Beatles. and he has presented papers at conferences at UNC-Asheville and Harvard University. His doctoral dissertation, defended in May 2020, was titled “Radical Reclamations and Musical Resonances in Hamilton: An American Musical.” He was the founder, producer, and curator of the pindrop sessions, co-presented with Boston public broadcaster WGBH and 99.5 WCRB, Classical Radio Boston.

Jason has given many public talks on behalf of classical music, including a special series as pre-concert lecturer for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (feature article here), as well as appearances at Ignite Boston, Ignite DC and Ignite Baltimore. He has hosted historical events in Boston, after having thrown many parties in Washington, DC celebrating significant historical anniversaries.

In October 2018, Jason was invited to be a Fellow at the prestigious Rubin Institute for Music Criticism at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, studying with eight of the top music critics in America. He has contributed reviews for DC's Pink Line Project and the Boston Musical Intelligencer (see the writing tab below for examples), and a book review for Berklee College of Music’s Jazz Perspectives. His master's thesis on Keith Jarrett has been downloaded by enterprising (undergraduate?) jazz enthusiasts over 6,400 times, which seems odd, tbh.

In April 2016, Jason began working as the Arts & Culture Liaison for AERONAUT in Somerville, MA, and was promoted to Head of Arts & Culture in April 2018. He booked all live music and performance-based series including at AERONAUT’s taproom and its popular summer beer gardens in Allston and Arlington. In 2018, AERONAUT received the BEST OF BOSTON: 2018 Best Taproom Programming award from the Improper Bostonian.

Jason has worked as a singer, composer, and halfway decent pianist for stage shows, children's theatre, and cabaret. He composed original music for "Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread" (part two here) by David Ives, staged at the Studio Theatre in Washington, DC. Recently he has studied Irish singing with noted Boston-based sean-nós singer Bridget Fitzgerald. 

Jason is a jazz trumpet graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he was a member of the award-winning Eastman Jazz Ensemble ("Best College Jazz Ensemble," Downbeat Magazine), the jazz trio Hee Hee She ("Best College Small Group," Downbeat Magazine) and his trumpet work includes stints with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra conducted by Buddy Morrow, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, the Henry Mancini Institute, and the Disney All-American College Marching Band. The Brockton High School jazz band remains the most killing ensemble he ever played in.