Cole P. Abod came to the University of Michigan about eight years ago to studio jazz piano — and economics.

He came out headed into a career in musical theater, currently serving as the music director in the latest touring production of the Tony Award-winning “Hadestown,” running Jan. 28-Feb. 2 at Detroit’s Fisher Theatre.

“I really enjoy the collaborative environment,” Abod, 26, explains via phone from the tour’s recent stop in San Antonio. “I enjoy the process of rehearsing something together as a group more than being in a practice room by myself. So I was drawn to that, and over those four years (at Michigan), things shifted to where my focus was on music directing and orchestrating for musical theater — but coming from a jazz perspective and classical training.

“Putting all of that together has been really fun and challenging and fulfilling.”

And Abod adds that “Hadestown” — singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell’s contemporized telling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice — is a show that uniquely allows him to all facets of his musical skill set.

“When I saw it for the first time, in 2022, I just fell in love with it immediately,” Abod explains. “It lets the musicians breathe and improvise. Nothing’s super scripted. It’s a really wonderful time every night. I never get bored of it at all.”

Growing up in Maryland, Abod began playing piano after one was purchased from a family friend who, as part of the sales pitch, suggested he had the potential to be a good player. “If not, it was a nice piano to have in the house,” he notes. Abod began taking lessons when he was 8 years old and became interested in jazz during middle school, gravitating to artists such as Chick Corea, Bud Powell and Horace Silver, as well as modern ensembles such as Snarky Puppy. An older brother, meanwhile, was a dancer and actor who stoked Abod’s interest in musical theater. When he was in high school, Abod wound up in the pit band for a production of “Ragtime,” which he enjoyed thanks to its prominent piano parts.When he enrolled at Michigan, Abod “intended to keep (musical theater) a hobby, or a side gig, in college alongside the jazz stuff.” But he found himself a first-call as a rehearsal pianist and pit band member in university stage productions — nearly 20 by his estimation. “There was just a lot of opportunities, playing rehearsal piano for this show or in the pit for that show,” he recalls. “I just kept doing it and really became part of that world.”

The economics degree, meanwhile, was inspired partly by his father, a small business owner, and some classes Abod took during high school. “I think about a third of the students in the (music) program double-degreed in something outside of music,” he says. “One of the reasons I chose Michigan was I wanted to go to a school that could give me a really good education.” He wound up using that degree during the pandemic lockdown, working in the finance department at Baltimore Center Stage while “doing as much music as I could,” mostly online.

He returned to the keyboard full-time as things opened up again, with productions at the Farmer’s Alley Theater in Kalamazoo and “Ragtime” again at the Flint Repertory Theatre. In New York since August 2022, he also began collaborating regularly with “High School Musical” actor Joe Serafini and singer-songwriter L’ogan J’ones and orchestrated musicals such as fellow U-M alum Emma Ashford’s “Heartbeats” and Yoni Weiss and Billy Recce’s “Fowl Play,” which is currently in development

Looking ahead, Abod said he hopes to do more of the same.

“I really am drawn to orchestrating and I really am drawn to theater,” he says. “It’s not like I’m wanting to switch to becoming a full-time jazz musician. I really love working on new (shows) with new composers and help move those forward. I really love this theater world. I love what I’ve been able to do in it, so I want to keep music directing, orchestrating — and playing, of course.”

“Hadestown” runs Tuesday through Sunday, Jan. 28-Feb. 2 at the Fisher Theatre, 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit. 313-872-100 or broadwayindetroit.com.