Jonah Payne is an accomplished performer, educator, and composer with eclectic experience in percussion including classical percussion, drum set, steel pan, marching percussion, jazz vibraphone, and a variety of non-Western percussion idioms (Afro-Brazilian, North Indian, Thai, Middle Eastern, etc.).
Regarding solo playing, Jonah performed a steel pan concerto with Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra after winning their Young Artist Competition in 2019. He has performed as a guest artist at numerous universities including Bowling Green State University, Tarleton State University, and Northern Illinois University’s (NIU) New Music Festival. In 2023, Jonah was accepted into the prestigious Cortona Marimba Sessions program where he spent a week in Italy learning from—and making music with—other percussionists from around the world.
Regarding ensemble playing, Jonah played vibraphone with the World Class Drum Corps International group, Spirit of Atlanta, in 2018. In 2019, he performed with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) percussion ensemble in their showcase concert at PASIC after the ensemble won the International Percussion Ensemble Competition.
That same year, Jonah played steel pans on legendary steel pannist Jonathan Scales’ album, Mindstate Music. In 2023, he performed with NIU’s World Steel Band at the National Society of Steel Band Educators. Jonah also performed and recorded with Arcomusical, a renowned non-profit ensemble dedicated to performing new works on the Afro-Brazilian berimbau. In 2025, he performed at the College Band Directors National Association Conference with the acclaimed University of North Texas Wind Symphony. He continues to perform and present all over the DFW area with his percussion collective, Spilled Milk.
Lastly, Jonah has a background in North and South Indian, Afro-Brazilian, Middle Eastern, Thai, Trinidadian, Indonesian, and Afro-Cuban traditions. He composed an album with his former band, Past Casual, called Togetherness, which combined jazz and pop idioms with steel pans. His work, Dream Land, for vibraphone and erhu (i.e., the Chinese two-string fiddle) was premiered at the NIU 2023 World Music Festival and released on Chih-I Hsiao’s album, Traveler, in 2025.
Jonah Payne graduated from UNL in 2021 with a B.M. in percussion performance under Dr. Dave Hall; he graduated from NIU in 2024 with a Master of Music degree in percussion performance under Dr. Greg Beyer and Ben Wahlund. Jonah is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Percussion Performance—with a related field in Ethnomusicology— at the University of North Texas under Mark Ford, Dr. Dave Hall, Paul Rennick, and many other professors.