Prior to joining University of Pittsburgh's PhD Jazz Studies program, 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. 
His first publication, "Jet-Lagged Jazz History: Teaching on the Other Side of the World," will appear in the next issue of Jazz Education in Research and Practice, the research journal of Jazz Education Network. He is interested in jazz and Western popular forms as global music and the relationship to the sociopolitical, economic and psychological 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, and his Bachelor’s Degree in Music at UC Santa Cruz in 2006.