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James William Sobaskie
Dr. James Sobaskie

Assistant Professor
Music Theory

jsobaskie@colled.msstate.edu
(662) 325-2871
Music Building B, Room 111

  • Ph. D. University of Wisconsin (WI)
  • M. A. University of Minnesota (MN)
  • B. A. University of Minnesota (MN)

James William Sobaskie earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, where his professors included Dominick Argento, Paul Fetler, Alex Lubet, and Susan McClary. He achieved his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, working with Bruce Benward, Michael Long, Joel Naumann, and Joseph Straus. While pursuing university studies, he taught piano and guitar, composed, and directed church choirs. Before coming to Mississippi State University, Dr. Sobaskie held positions at the University of California, Riverside, the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, St. Norbert College, and the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. His teaching responsibilities at MSU include Music Theory and Ear Training, Orchestration, Form and Analysis, and Composition, while other pedagogical activities involve computer applications in music, music education, and musicology.

Dr. Sobaskie's scholarly interests include the music of Franz Schubert, Frédéric Chopin, and Gabriel Fauré, plus the theories of Heinrich Schenker and Arnold Schoenberg. He has published essays on each, and has been invited to speak in Belgium, Canada, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, as well as national and regional conferences in America. Among his recent endeavors is a new critical edition of Fauré's last two compositions, the Trio pour violon, violoncelle et piano (1923) and the Quatuor à cordes (1924), a volume within a patrimonial project supported by the French government. He also guest-edited and contributed an essay to a special Schubert-themed issue of Nineteenth Century Music Review. Currently Dr. Sobaskie is completing a book, The Music of Gabriel Fauré: style, structure, and the art of allusion, and is Book Reviews Editor of Nineteenth Century Music Review.