Lynda Roth bio

Born in a rural town outside of Pittsburgh, Lynda Roth began studying music at the age of seven and performed in choirs from age eight. Her professional career began at 21, the summer before she graduated from Brandeis University. On a dare. she responded to an ad in the local press looking for a female singer piano player. Band members Jimmy and John drove out to hear her. Lynda sat down at an old upright on the ground floor of the three-story farmhouse where she rented a room, wailed out Carol King’s It’s Too Late and got the job. Her first gig was at a place called Gatsby’s on Cape Cod: seven weeks of summer, seven nights a week. The year was 1973; the band, Confection.

Throughout the 70s and 80s, Lynda toured with girl bands (Tickets, FLO, the Clique, Topaz, Pink Mink...), and had an early album selected as one of Billboard’s Top Album Picks. She wrote and produced scores for several PBS documentaries, earning an Emmy. In her recording studio in Laguna Beach, she worked with other musicians and singers as coach, composer, and arranger. Lynda performed twice in Carnegie Hall during a musical partnership with Debbie Friedman and toured internationally as music director of Playboy’s Girls of Rock and Roll. In 2003 she graduated from Lyle “Spud’ Murphy’s Equal Interval System of Horizontal Composition. crediting Spud with 'opening up sounds that had been trapped in [her] head for years.' She later founded The Muse Project, which would become her legacy, composing numerous orchestral and choral works based on American historical documents and literature.

In January 2011, six months after her critical diagnosis, Lynda’s musician friends in southern California joined together to host a gala benefit concert in her honor. It was an evening of music, song, and heartfelt—and often hilarious—recollections. A beautiful, unforgettable gift to her. She died in June 2012, days before her 60th birthday. The weeks following brought an outpouring of shock and sorrow. Lynda had a profound connection to so many.