By Janet Arnold, October 2014
Emily Bear, hailed as a 13-year-old piano prodigy, has been called the next Mozart. She composes, orchestrates and performs in a wide variety of styles.
After spending time with Emily, Quincy Jones remarked, “With the ability to seamlessly move from classical to jazz and bebop, she shows as much musical prowess as pianists/ composers twice her age, and I am thrilled to be working with her. She’s astounding, man … she’s astounding.”
Emily, who lives in Rockford, IL, made her concert debut at age 5 in Chicago, performing a 40-minute solo program that featured classical pieces side by side with jazz standards and her own compositions. Her orchestral debut came at age 7, and by age 8, she was playing concerts abroad in Italy and China. When she was 9 she made her Carnegie Hall debut with a 110-piece orchestra, a 220-voice choir and R&B soloists performing one of her composition.
Emily comes by her musical agility naturally. In a recent email interview, she says, “My mom was a musical theater major at the University of Michigan and sings Broadway and jazz; my sister plays the harp and piano and the harpist for the Rockford Symphony Youth Orchestra; my brother plays guitar, piano and is the first chair tenor saxophone in his high school jazz band; and my dad plays the radio!”
Emily broke into the national spotlight at age 6 when she appeared as a guest on the Ellen DeGeneres Show performing Mozart, jazz and an original song she composed. She has since been featured on several major news programs in the United States and internationally. Now that her hands are finally large enough to play it, she learned Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” one of her all-time favorite pieces, for a concert series in Connecticut run by a member of the Gershwin family.
Yet like anyone her age, Emily has other interests. She “loves cooking and baking, jet skiing, swimming, summer camp, animals and making jewelry.” Emily is home-schooled to allow flexibility in her schedule.
Emily is enthusiastic about sharing her passion for music with others, saying she loves to hear that her music inspires someone to learn to play an instrument.
“I also love performing at charity events and a percentage of each of my CDs and music songbooks are donated to different charities…Another thing that is super important to me is helping music programs in public schools. If anyone has any used instruments around their house that they are not using anymore, please donate them to your public school’s music programs.”
Emily knows music is in her future. “I love composing for orchestra – it’s the most magical feeling to hear the music come alive with that many instruments playing together. My other favorite thing is composing for films. I also wrote music for television commercials like the recent Weight Watcher’s Simple Start campaign.”
Locals will have a chance to see the Jewish pianist perform when she appears at the Mesa Arts Center at 7:30 pm on Oct. 30. She will be playing with cellist Zuill Bailey. Zuill is the curator for the Center’s Classical Music Inside Out Series, which endeavors to make classical music more accessible and encourages an understanding of the music from the perspective of the composer and performer. Mesa Arts Center is located at One E Main St. in downtown Mesa. Tickets are available at mesaartscenter.com or by calling 480-644-6500.
– See more at: https://azjewishlife.com/2014/oct/lifestyle/prodigies-are-kids-too-emily-bear#sthash.ZKg4PGNv.dpuf
