Jack Jarrett, a native of Asheville, North Carolina, holds bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in composition from the University of Florida, the Eastman School of Music, and Indiana University, respectively, as well as a diploma in opera conducting from the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. Principal composition teachers have been Bernard Rogers, Bernhard Heiden, and Boris Blacher.

In addition to teaching in several American colleges and universities, Dr. Jarrett has held a Fulbright grant, a Ford Foundation grant as composer in public schools (Oshkosh, Wisconsin), and an Aspen Conducting Fellowship. He has conducted over twenty opera productions, and for two years served as assistant conductor to the Richmond Symphony Orchestra. More than fifty major orchestras, including London, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and the Boston Pops, have performed his orchestral compositions and arrangements.

From 1989–2001, Dr. Jarrett taught at Berklee College of Music, where he served as chair of the largest composition department in the world. There he trained both traditional and film composers, and oversaw Berklee's unique technology-based training program in conducting, which incorporates software of his own design.

In 2008, Dr. Jarrett received the prestigious ASCAP Foundation Nissim Prize for his soprano and orchestral composition Autumn Too Long.