Jonah feels at home in any musical situation. In regard to Western traditions, he played vibraphone with the World Class Drum Corps International group, Spirit of Atlanta. 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; in 2025, he performed with the University of North Texas (UNT) Percussion Ensemble as winners of the same competition. Also in 2025, he performed at the College Band Directors National Association Conference with the acclaimed University of North Texas Wind Symphony.

Jonah has performed new music as a guest soloist at several universities such as Bowling Green State University, Tarleton State University, and Northern Illinois University’s (NIU) New Music Festival. Lastly, 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.

In regard to non-Western traditions, Jonah’s steel pan experience is extensive. Highlights include playing on legendary steel pannist Jonathan Scales’ Mindstate Music album, presenting at the National Society of Steel Band Educators conferences in 2023 and 2026, adjudicating the Central Texas Steel Band Festival, and performing a steel pan concerto with Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra after winning their Young Artist Competition in 2019.

In 2025, Jonah performed on Indo-Trinidadian tassa drums at PASIC alongside legendary tassa drummer Ustad Lenny Kumar. Jonah also performed and recorded with Arcomusical, a renowned non-profit ensemble dedicated to performing new works on the Afro-Brazilian berimbau. He is an in-demand percussionist as a result of his experience with traditions from North and South India, Brazil, the Middle East, Thailand, Trinidad, Indonesia, Cuba, and Ghana. He continues to perform and present all over the DFW area with his percussion collective, Spilled Milk.

Lastly, Jonah has extensive training in composing and arranging. 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. His most recent composition for steel band, “Ziggy’s Tune,” was professionally recorded and will be released in 2027.

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, Ed Smith, José Aponte, Poovalur Sriji, Gideon Alorwoyie, and others.