Jesse Ayers has had his music performed in Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Russia, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, and over 85 U.S. cities, and has twice had his music selected by the International Society of Contemporary Music to represent the United States at the prestigious World Music Days festival (Slovenia 2003 and Warsaw 1992).

His more important works explore the interaction between the spiritual and natural worlds and the redemptive intervention of God in the affairs of the human race.

Dr. Ayers has been awarded the Individual Creativity Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council as well as 16 awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), grants from Meet the Composer and the American Music Center, and Malone University's Distinguished Faculty Award. He has been a guest composer on university campuses in California, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, and Tennessee.

Ayers holds the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the University of Tennessee and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Kentucky. He has studied with David Van Vactor, John Anthony Lennon, Joseph Baber, Guy Bachman, and Allen Johnson; choral conducting with Donald Neuen; and percussion with F. Michael Combs. Ayers has had master classes with composers Sven-David Sandstrom, Karel Husa, Norman Dello Joio, and Vaclav Nelhybel.

Ayers is currently a senior professor at Malone University in Canton, Ohio.