Born in London, England in 1993, Theon Cross is a tuba player and composer and a key component of London’s thriving jazz scene. He has been credited as being innovative and reinventing the art of the tuba. At the age of 8, he began studying the tenor horn but switched his attention to the tuba when he was in his teens. Theon Cross participated in several music workshops including the Kinetika Bloco, a Brazilian-styled carnival group and the Tomorrow’s Warriors. He was able to build up his technique while also learning how to improvise. Theon Cross studied Jazz and classical music at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and after he graduated, he worked with artists such as Jon Batiste, Emeli Sandé, Kano, Courtney Pine, and others. He also joined – and has become a core member of – Mercury Prize-nominated group Sons of Kemet. Theon Cross released his first solo EP, Aspirations, in 2015. The popularity of the release helped earn him a Best Jazz Newcomer nomination at the 2016 Jazz FM awards. His debut album, Fyah, was released to great acclaim in 2019 and rose to Number 1 on the UK’s Jazz & Blues chart while also impressively reaching Number 23 on Billboard’s Jazz Albums chart. In October 2021, Theon Cross released his sophomore solo album Intra-I, which featured musical assistance from Remi Graves, Shumba Maasai, Afronaut Zu, Ahnansé, Consensus and Oren Marshall. The album – which blended jazz, dub, hip-hop, soca, grime, and Afro-Cuban music – was his first to feature guest vocalists.