Saraydarian has a MM in Jazz Studies from Berklee College of Music and a BA in Music from the University of California, Riverside. He performs regularly as a trombonist in ensembles such as the Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra and Mehmet Sanlikol’s WhatsNext? Orchestra including performances at Jazz at Lincoln Center and Birdland. Saraydarian is also a fourth generation performer on al-ud and leads the Middle Eastern Music Ensemble.
His writing has appeared in the Palgrave Handbook of Educational Thinkers, Key Readings for Educational Praxis, Telling the Story in the Data: Narrative Writing for Doctoral Students and Qualitative Researchers, as well as the journal Jazz Education in Research and Practice.
In addition to teaching in MIT Music, Garo is an Assistant Professor in the Harmony department at Berklee College of Music and an instructor in the Transformative Education department at Boston College where he teaches courses on philosophy of education. He also teaches music education and music theory at the Longy School of Music of Bard College where he has helped develop a more inclusive music theory curriculum.