Meet Gretchen Menn
Say Hi.
Rapidly gaining praise in the world of instrumental rock and beyond, Gretchen Menn isn't your average guitarist on the rise.
Apart from demolishing her mother's violin with Pete Townshend-like vehemence at age three, Gretchen's passion for all things guitar didn't fully surface until her early teenage years. Her father, noted writer and former editor-in-chief of Guitar Player Magazine, Don Menn, was quick to point her in the direction of the greats as soon as she expressed interest in guitar. While earning a degree in music at Smith College, she has studied, in equal parts, the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Steve Morse, Frank Zappa, and Jimmy Page. Michael Molenda, Guitar Player Magazine's editor-in-chief, noted that she seeks the unknown by blending disparate jazz, prog, and world-music influences into a tasty, guitaristic thrill ride."
Since the release of her first solo album in 2011, Gretchen immersed herself in study to expand her skills not just on the guitar, but in composition and orchestration. Her second album, a concept album based on Dante's Inferno, marks a significant evolution in her compositions as well as guitar playing. The result is a work of highly compositional music which evokes the epic journey through Dante's circles of the underworld.
Gretchen also performs the music of Led Zeppelin all over the U.S. with Zepparella, an all-female outfit covering the hits of Zepplin. In her off time, she continues to study guitar, composition, and orchestration.