Emily Bear
Pianist, Composer, Songwriter, Singer
Emily has been composing since she was three years old. By the time she was four, her music was being published and distributed by Hal Leonard and she currently has five original sheet music songbooks distributed worldwide. At just five-years-old, she made history with her professional debut as “the youngest performer to play the Ravinia Festival” before going on to become a regular on Ellen a year later. She would grace stages everywhere from Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and The Hollywood Bowl to Montreux Jazz Festival, Blue Note Tokyo and New York, performing compositions of her own and classics alongside orchestras and ensembles. Among numerous accolades and honors, she became “the youngest person to win the Morton Gould Young Composer Award”, won two Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Awards, received the 2018 Abe Olman Scholarship at the Songwriter Hall of Fame Awards, and garnered the 2018 Order of Lincoln Award from her home state of Illinois—an honor also bestowed upon First Lady and Senator Hillary Clinton, Steven Chen (YouTube founder), Mellody Hobson (Dreamworks), and more. Along the way, she played in nearly every corner of the globe. Enchanting a bevy of legends and music royalty, she attracted none other than her idol and mentor Quincy Jones to produce her jazz debut, Diversity, in 2013.
In 2017, she starred “Night of The Proms,” a 25-city sold-out Stadium Tour in Europe. In addition to performing, she wrote and arranged all the music for a 70-piece orchestra, 30-voice choir, and rock band. As part of the production, she floated over the audience on a flying platform—while playing the piano, no less. A documentary about Emily notably received an EMMY® and has generated over 40 million views. She has raised millions for various charities from her performances and events.
Throughout 2018 and 2019, Emily shone on stage, on-screen, and in the studio. She performed Rhapsody In Blue with a hundred piece symphony enthralling more than19,000 people at Millennium Park in Chicago on Independence Day. She performed at the Hollywood Bowl twice and composed the opening and end titles to Warner Brothers’ feature film, Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase. Additionally, she was the featured pianist on renowned composer Mark Isham’s emotional score for the Universal film, A Dog’s Journey and its soundtrack. She also returned to the Hollywood Bowl where she composed and performed an original score for a Disney classic animated film, premiering it with a 70-piece symphony.
All of this set the stage for her formal debut as an original pop songwriter and vocalist. Her first single, I’m Not Alone, is really special to her. “Although I wrote it to a very specific event in my life, the lyrics can be applied to so many different situations. Even when you are in the most pain, know that you are not alone.”
No matter what Emily does—whether conducting an orchestra, composing for a film, playing jazz or performing a pop song—she makes a lasting connection.
SOCIAL MEDIA