Regarding solo playing, Jonah performed a steel pan concerto with Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra after winning their Young Artist Competition in 2019. In addition, he was a featured soloist on the 10th anniversary of the Northern Illinois University (NIU) New Music Festival and Bowling Green State University’s Spring 2023 Faculty Composers’ Forum. In June of 2023, Jonah was accepted into the prestigious Cortona Marimba Sessions program where he spent a week in Italy learning from—and making music with—elite 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. More recently, he performed at the National Society of Steel Band Educators’ 2023 convention with the NIU Steel Band. He also performed with Arcomusical, a renowned non-profit ensemble dedicated to performing new works on the berimbau, for two years and recently recorded an album with them.

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.