Dr. Jade Kastel joined the UIS Music Program in 2025 as adjunct instructor of jazz and classical saxophone, as director of the UIS Jazz Ensemble, and as woodwind and piano faculty in the UIS Community Music School. 

Since moving to Springfield in 2024, Dr Kastel frequently performs on a myriad of instruments at various venues: The Hoogland Center for the Arts The Prom (2025), Dreamgirls (2025), and Hello Girls! (2025; The Legacy: Come From Away (2025); She has subbed with FOURSquared Multiple Woodwind Quartet; and she subbed as an organist and pianist at First Church of the Brethren and First Presbyterian Church.

Currently, Dr. Kastel is the Deputy Director at the Illinois State Library. In 2023, Dr. Kastel was named the 2023 Illinois Academic Librarian of the Year awarded by the Illinois Lobrary Association and she was appointed as the founding Diversity Officer for Western Illinois University Libraries. Dr. Kastel was a mentor in the 2025 Mentoring Program for the North American Saxophone Alliance's Committee on Gender Equity and the 2025 Illinois Library Association's (ILA) Mentoring Program. She isa. member of the ILA Diversity Committee and the Indiana Library Federation's DEIJA [diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and accessibility] Committee. 

Dr. Kastel holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Jazz Performance with a minor in Queer Studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Library & Information Science from the University of South Florida. Her research highlights the contributions and representation of LGBTQ people and gender in jazz. In 2019, Dr. Kastel was a fellow in the Institute of Jazz Studies Archival Fellowship at Rutgers Unviersity and she completed a teaching assistantship in the Tirocinante program at the Conservatorio di Musica "Niccolo Piccinni" in Bari, Italy. Since 2008, Dr. Kastel has worked as a jazz musician and director of music in Milwaukee, Miami, and Illinois. Her performances have taken her to Bolivia, Brazil, Great Britain, Italy, Slovenia, and across the United States. 

In addition to music and librarianship, Dr. Kastel is a creative artist and her artwork has been shown at Perspectives Art Gallery's 2025 Pride Exhibit (a former gallery in Petersburg, IL) and the Springfield Art Association's 2025 exhibits Wicked, Pride, and the Statewide Illinois Artist Showcase. Her art often features mixed media, including pieces of metal and detritus found on her magnet fishing adventures and dog walks. 

Education
D.M.A. Jazz Performance, Minor in Queer Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
M.L.I.S. Library & Information Science, University of South Florida
M.M. Saxophone Performance, Youngstown State University, Ohio
B.M. Saxophone Performance, Concordia College, Minnesota