Gwyneth Herbert

Born in London on August 26, 1981, Gwyneth Herbert is a British singer/songwriter whose catalog includes solo albums, musical theater productions, and film scores. A lifelong musician, she began writing her own songs at age five and had mastered several instruments by her mid-teens, including piano and French horn. She met Will Rutter while attending St. Chad's College in Durham, England, and the two began playing shows together as the jazz duo Black Coffee. Their first album, First Songs, was released in 2003, featuring a mix of original material and diverse covers. She signed with Universal as a solo artist shortly after the album's release and collaborated with co-writer Will Rutter on the three originals that appeared on her solo debut, Bittersweet and Blue, in 2004. Between Me and the Wardrobe followed in 2006, marking not only Gwyneth Herbert's first release for Blue Note Records, but also her first time releasing an entirely self-written album. While continuing to release critically-acclaimed records like 2008's Ten Lives, 2009's All The Ghosts, and 2013's The Sea Cabinet, she also expanded her focus to musical theater. She composed music for six musicals during the 2010s, including 2014's The A-Z of Mrs P — whose signature song, "Lovely London Town," had earned the Stiles And Drew Song of the Year Award four years earlier — and her 2016 adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen. Letters I Haven't Written, her sixth solo album, followed in 2018.