Biography

Jonathan Weiss is a composer and piano teacher based in New Haven, CT. When he was seven, his mother gave him a Casio piano keyboard for Christmas, and he discovered he could figure out tunes by ear. Since then, his passion for musical discovery has led him on many adventures.

Jonathan Weiss pictured with Samantha Sims (left) and Henry "Sam" Chauncey (right)
Jonathan Weiss pictured with Samantha Sims (left) and Henry “Sam” Chauncey (right). Photo: Judy Sirota Rosenthal.

Weiss graduated with a B.A. in Music, summa cum laude, from Yale College, where he studied piano and composition under Kathryn Alexander, Nathan Roberts, Konrad Kaczmarek, Jade Conlee, Howard Frazin, and Jeanine Tesori. He has won awards including the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award, the Beekman Cannon Friends of Music Prize, and the Abraham Beekman Cox Prize. His compositions have been performed at venues like The Green Room 42 in Manhattan, at a masterclass with the violinist Hilary Hahn, and in living rooms with close friends. He was a recipient of the inaugural 2024-25 Chauncey Fellowship, a program of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven for college graduates with artistic and service-oriented goals. In February 2025, he released his debut album, OH VASTNESS.

He is passionate not just about musical composition but also about connecting to young people with disabilities. This journey began in teaching piano to his older brother, Luke, who is a very musical person with disabilities. These days, he teaches piano to blind students through Vision Through Music, works as a home health aide for an autistic individual who is a talented artist and cellist, and is a volunteer composer for Hear Your Song and Sing Me a Story.

He is currently composing his opera, teaching over sixteen beginning and intermediate piano students at Creative Music Center, and serving as a musician at Bethesda Lutheran Church and Yale Taizé.

Erika Enclade performs “A Girl Who Loves Frogs.”