Jonathan Newman composes music rich with rhythmic drive and intricate sophistication. A 2001 recipient of the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Newman creates broadly coloured musical works, often incorporating styles of pop, blues, jazz, folk, and funk into otherwise classical models. Other performances include The Vinyl Six written for the chamber group Avian Music, arrangements of electronica premiered by Alarm Will Sound at the 2005 Lincoln Center Festival, and Metropolitan premiered by the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. In 2007 he began work on an opera based on the 1962 cult horror film Carnival of Souls.

Born in 1972, Newman holds a BM degree from Boston University School for the Arts and an MM degree from the Juilliard School where he studied with John Corigliano and David Del Tredici.