About Jonah

Jonah Barnett is a guitarist/multi-instrumentalist, award-winning composer, and educator. Jonah is on faculty as the Professor of Jazz Guitar at the University of William and Mary, and Professor of Guitar and Music Theory at Eastern Mennonite University. As an active member of the D.C. and NYC music scenes, Jonah works in a multitude of genres and styles. He is the music supervisor and orchestrator for three ongoing Off-Broadway musical theater productions: The Pyramid: A 'Dance Moms' Musical Parody, The Startup, and Alan Turing and the Queen of the Night. Jonah also currently works for The Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival as Operations Manager.

An award-winning composer and arranger, Jonah has worked with artists including: Ingrid Jensen, Jaleel Shaw, Donny McCaslin, Elizabeth Teeter, Emily Loesser, and many others. Jonah is the winner of the 2025 ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award. He was also a recipient of the Ted and Sandra Ballowe Scholarship at JMU, and of the ASCAP/Fran Morgenstern Davis Scholarship while at MSM. Jonah has studied guitar with Mike Moreno and Adam Larrabee. In composition Jonah has studied with Mike Holober, Darcy James Argue, Eric Guinivan, Jason Haney, and Amanda Bono.

As a performer and recording artist, Jonah excels on electric, steel string acoustic, and nylon string guitars, as well as mandolin, tenor banjo, ukulele, dobro/slide guitar, electric bass, saxophones, keyboards, and a smattering of other instruments. Jonah has performed in an large variety of styles at renowned venues such as: The Players Theater, 54 Below, Dizzy’s Jazz Club, The Manhattan School of Music, James Madison University’s Forbes Center, The University of Virginia’s Culbreth Theater, Fordham University, Virginia Commonwealth University, The University of William and Mary, The Kraine Theater, 54 Below, The Green Room 42, and many others.

Jonah has experience facilitating and music directing studio recordings, live performances, and working with live sound and audio equipment. He also has extensive experience with recording, mixing and mastering, DAW’s, film scoring, music notation software, video editing, and musical equipment maintenance. Jonah is an active creator and educator, and is passionate about the impact of education on people’s lives. Jonah prides himself on his motivation, high standards of quality, reliability, and consistency, and above all else making authentic art that people connect to.

In his free time Jonah enjoys drawing, reading, and woodworking.