{"id":2078,"date":"2024-12-23T17:00:44","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T23:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/?p=2078"},"modified":"2025-01-03T11:34:42","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T17:34:42","slug":"gwen-matthews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/gwen-matthews\/","title":{"rendered":"Gwen Matthews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gwen Matthews<\/p>\n

Inducted 2023<\/p>\n

Gwendolyn Vee Matthews is an international recording artist, producer, songwriter, vocal arranger & technician, and teacher who has sung on many national television and radio commercials. From Stevie Wonder, Kenny Rogers, and members of Earth, Wind, & Fire, Gwen has recorded with the best. Gwen\u2019s mother said that she started singing in the cradle\u2026 mom actually thought something was wrong with her baby because she never shut up… until a good friend said “Olivia, do you know that your baby is singing<\/em>?!?!” After Gwen heard about that, she knew that it was her calling forever- it\u2019s in her DNA! Gwen absolutely loves the stage and feels grateful to be able to share her talent with her listeners. With her rich, velvety, funky, rhythmic voice, she continues to excite audiences leaving them standing and screaming for more. Born in Chicago, her career started by singing “jingles” in Minneapolis, later in Los Angeles, and also in New York City. You can hear Gwen’s golden voice on many national and local spots for Northwest Airlines, General Mills, Whirlpool, American Family Insurance, Allstate Insurance, and Bandag Tire Company. She has performed at the famed Montreal Jazz Festival<\/em> in Canada and The Fleur de France Festival<\/em> in Paris, France, and was featured at festivals and concerts throughout Europe with The Denis Colin Trio. Matthews also toured Russia with famed vocal group Women Who Cook, and traveled internationally with The Rupert\u2019s Orchestra.\u00a0 Gwen recorded songs with the Emmy Award-winning project The Music Workshop for Kids, and traveled worldwide for such corporate clients as Johnson & Johnson and the Radisson Hotel Chain. Her move to Los Angeles lasted 11 years, where she worked for many musical giants, nationally acclaimed producers, and hit-making songwriters- all who sought her for studio, background, and stage performances. Gwen arranged songs and recorded with the legendary Stevie Wonder, noteworthy producer Skip Scarborough, songwriter Frank Wilson, Phillip Bailey & Larry Dunn (both of R&B superstar group Earth, Wind, & Fire), legendary Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier, writer & producer Susanne DePasse, jazz legends Ronnie Laws & Norman Connors, and R&B group Silk. While in L.A., Gwen studied four years under world-renowned vocal technician Seth Riggs- a gift to her from friend Stevie Wonder. She even appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Upon returning to Minneapolis from L.A. in 1987, she recorded her European hit \u201cKeep On Pushing\u201d, joined the famed Rupert’s Orchestra, and began her own production career. Her first projects were producing for toy industry giant Mattel & G.I. Joe, General Mills, and Black Inc. Gwen\u2019s productions include gospel CD Celebrate Faith<\/em> and her proudest production Uniting for You<\/em> (co-written with Jared Anderson & Skip Scarborough), which included over 40 of Minnesota\u2019s finest artists performing to raise money for AIDS relief in Africa. Matthews currently performs at sold-out venues like The Chanhassen Dinner Theatre, The Dakota Club in downtown Minneapolis, and at Crooner’s Supper Club in Fridley. Gwen also performs locally, nationally, and worldwide with pop orchestra Synergy, travels to Europe with The Denis Colin Trio, and enjoys singing blues with the band The Walking Wounded. She continues to perform with Bobby Schnitzer in a beautiful guitar-vocal duo, which is her personal favorite music to date. Her latest endeavors are creating themed shows such as Aretha and Her Men<\/em>, which showcases the many duets Franklin performed and recorded with her many male singing friends. Another is a tribute to Burt Bacharach with the incomparable Bruce A. Henry, and her Christmas and Easter shows dueting with the powerful Robert Robinson. Gwen will soon be unveiling a brand-new show which will showcase hit songs written by her late great dear friend (whose name will not be revealed at this time)- onstage with Gevonne Ford- her longtime friend and stage-mate. Gwen has been nominated numerous times for Best Female R&B- Gospel- Jazz Vocalist Award and shared the coveted Best Cover Band Award (with Rupert\u2019s Orchestra) for several years at The Minnesota Music Awards. She won The Minnesota Black Music Awards twice. In 2007 Matthews was inducted into the Minnesota Rock and Country Hall of Fame with jazz group Passage. In 2009 she was inducted into The Iowa Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame with the powerful rock band Crow. More recently Gwen was named one of 30 Essential Black Minnesota Musicians<\/em> by Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Jon Bream. Gwen was the first African-American solo female artist to be honored at The Minnesota Music Hall of Fame in 2023, saying “It\u2019s so nice to be the first of something, and what a great something this is!” Currently, she offers vocal mastery classes and workshops nationally and teaches & coaches privately. Gwen’s latest CD album is entitled Lyrias, now available everywhere. In the 2020s Gwen is writing and working on a new original a solo CD album.<\/p>\n

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Gwen Matthews Inducted 2023 Gwendolyn Vee Matthews is an international recording artist, producer, songwriter, vocal arranger & technician, and teacher who has sung on many national television and radio commercials. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,6],"tags":[445,455,65,68,57,45],"class_list":["post-2078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-50","category-inductee","tag-445","tag-gwen-matthews","tag-inductee","tag-minneapolis","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-music-hall-of-fame"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}