Theron Brown

Theron Brown is a jazz pianist, bandleader and educator whose sound draws on the gospel, jazz and soul of the great legends, and who plays to encourage and uplift people. Based in Akron, he founded the Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival, held each year in the city's downtown historic district, and he performs regularly at jazz clubs and theaters across Northeast Ohio, with a career that has reached audiences from New York to Tokyo. He has also worked as artist coordinator for Curated Storefront and as artist director at the I Promise School.

In 2016 he appeared as a young Herbie Hancock in Miles Ahead, Don Cheadle's film about Miles Davis. He released his debut album, No Concepts, in 2019. His latest, Mr. Magnetic, came out in November 2025: co-produced with James Adams and recorded for Dolby Atmos spatial audio, it features Jon Lampley on trumpet, Chris Coles on saxophone, James Johnson III on drums and Jonathon Muir-Cotton on bass, and celebrates the Akron musicians and institutions around him.