By the time she was 19 years old, Marvel Jem Roth had toured several continents with world-renowned orchestras, her original classical compositions played by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Juilliard School, and Carnegie Hall. But what motivates her isn’t the glamor of performance. It’s the pursuit of authenticity.
“I’ve always found it where I could be authentic without it being judged,” Roth explained. “People judge [classical music] based off of usually the attentiveness you put into it, and how much, as a composer, you demonstrate that you care about the people playing your music, and that’s why I found I was able to be successful.”
A proud Angeleno, Roth grew up in the music industry surrounded by creatives. She came to music as a young performer, competing in state competitions for classical pianists. A consistent runner-up, Roth tired of hearing that her playing was not perfect.
“I hated that concept of perfection,” she reflected. “I think there’s a bit of an oxymoron to perfect music because perfect music never sounds good.”
At nine years old, frustrated by the expectation of perfection, she stopped training as a performance pianist and began to improvise, inadvertently creating her first compositions. “I just started playing what I thought sounded good because I was tired of playing what other people told me to play.”
By age 14, her compositions could be heard around the world. She became an apprentice composer for the National Youth Orchestra, which performs at Carnegie Hall, and joined them on a tour of South America. She wrote for Julliard, for the Curtis School, and for the LA Philharmonic all throughout high school.
One of her biggest pieces, “Lens,” was commissioned by the three-time Grammy-winning Kronos Quartet, a group she idolized as a child. It’s a song about LA and the industry, she says, and how the media misrepresents the city she calls home. To compose the piece, Roth drove around LA recording sounds of the natural and urban landscapes – helicopters whirring, waves crashing, trees rustling in the wind. Next, she used audio software to distort the noise and produce an underscoring track for the live instrumentals. Over the course of the piece, the recordings become increasingly pitched like the string instruments on stage. According to Roth, this blurring of sound mirrors the way that influencers and tabloids distort the image of LA.
“I grew up around all of that. But LA is also full of people like me who are multi-generations, born and raised in Los Angeles. My dad has never left the Valley. I have a severe LA Valley accent… I think there’s very authentic people and very authentic scenes within music that aren’t flashy. It’s not going to be picked up by TMZ, but that is a real part of LA that does get distorted and not seen.”
Though a product of the West Coast, Roth isn’t your typical Angeleno, says her friend Haeon Lee, a Princeton student whom she met through a composing fellowship. “California has this image of being very slow, very relaxed, just takes the things at their own pace. And I think, relative to that, she does care more about this driven efficiency.”
In her short time at Princeton, ambitious is indeed what she’s been. On top of completing professional commissions, Roth composes and conducts for the Lewis Center for the Arts, serves as treasurer for the Undergraduate Student Government, and researches cultural capital in pursuit of an Economics degree.
Her peers notice and admire her energy and initiative. “She always struck me as someone with a lot of self-assuredness and confidence, and I was like, I want more of that presence in my life, specifically from another woman,” said Gabrielle Liberman, Roth’s sophomore year roommate. “I really enjoyed sometimes just the fact of being around someone with no bullshit.”
How does such an accomplished teenager envisage her long-term goals? She simply smiles and shrugs, no bullshit. “I don’t know yet, man. I’m 19.”
But then she ponders further, turning the question over in her head. “I know what I love. I know I love to think…and I want to enter somewhere where I will be able to spend my time thinking and being productive and contributing to society in some capacity. And I think the arts contribute to society.”
