Jonathan Noël

Jonathan Noël was born in a small New England town, in 1972, and as soon as he was able to reach the keys of a church piano, he was hooked. At age eleven, he began playing piano at a nearby retirement home. "Who but God would choose the four walls of a room, surrounded by loving, weathered faces, as the soil for His gifts to ripen in." By age fourteen, Jonathan was playing piano and singing in his church's worship services, every time the doors were open. From 1990 to 1994, he attended Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois. There, Jonathan continued to lead worship and was later instrumental in the initiation of student led worship in the college's chapel services. Between classes, studying and worship leading, he began writing, recording, and playing his own original music at local venues, along with fellow students Sarah Jahn and future Jars Of Clay members Charlie Lowell and Stephen Mason. Jonathan graduated with a degree in Youth Ministry and Music. In October of 1999, Jonathan's most fulfilling life event happened, when he married his soul mate, Amanda Washington (see Amanda Noël). He met Amanda while playing keyboards on her 1997 demo recording entitled, The Journey. The two began dating in early '98 and the rest is, as they say, history. Jonathan has toured extensively with artists such as Margaret Becker and Out Of The Grey, and in the Spring of 2000 he signed on as band leader, keyboardist and backing vocalist for Fernando Ortega's Home Tour, as well as appearing with other guests as part of Andrew Peterson's Behold The Lamb of God Christmas concert.