EMILY BEAR
In his illustrious career, Quincy Jones had seen it all – or so he may have thought before he came across Emily
Bear. Only 12 years old, Emily is one of the most astonishing musical talents of our time – composing,
orchestrating, and performing in a bewilderingly diverse collection of styles. Some of her huge talent is on display
in the appropriately-named album Diversity, her first album for Concord Records/Quest Records, which Jones
produced.
Diversity was recorded at Westlake Studios in Los Angeles - the same Studio that Quincy recorded his Back On
The Block album and Bad with Michael Jackson, thus passing on the torch of a mighty tradition to one of the
youngest members of a new musical generation. Using her own jazz trio handpicked by Quincy, Emily
demonstrates both her versatility and an open-hearted melodic soul at the piano, writing all of the selections
herself.
“She’s the most delightful human being I’ve ever met in my life,” Quincy says. “And her music is the same way. I
am at once astounded and inspired by the enormous talent that Emily embodies. With the ability to seamlessly
move from Classical to Jazz and Be-bop, 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. She plays like she’s 40
years old. She is the complete 360-degree package, and there are no limits to the musical heights she can
reach.”
On Diversity, Emily shares several of her reflective mood compositions (among them “Blue Note,” “Alika,”
“Jessie’s Song” and “Tutti Cuore”) and demonstrates her ability to get down with a Latin feeling in the rhythm
section (the catchy “Hot Peppers” and self-explanatory “Salsa Americana”). There is a specific Spanish flavor in
“Peralada” – inspired by the Catalan city where she first performed this piece at a music festival – and utilizes her
classical technique to a tee in “Reflections.” “Northern Lights” is the piece for which Emily won an ASCAP Morton
Gould Young Composer Competition Award at the age of 6. And “Q,” of course, refers to the nickname of Emily’s
producer, which after a heartfelt slow intro, turns into a jaunty jazz-trio tribute to the ever-youthful spirit of her
mentor.
Emily plays all of her music from memory – even 45 page classical concertos. “I memorize them (the notes) pretty
quickly,” she says, adding modestly, “then it’s all about polishing the details.” George Gershwin and Debussy are
currently her favorite classical composers. Her jazz favorites include Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson,
and, of course, Quincy Jones. Emily says working with Quincy is, “absolutely amazing. He’s so special in every
way and he’s so fun to work with. He’s about the best mentor anyone could dream of.”
A child of this century, born Aug. 30, 2001 in Rockford IL where she still lives with her parents and older brother
and sister, Emily started to show extraordinary musical talent practically from the cradle. “There was never a
definitive date when it began – it’s always been,” says Andrea. “As a baby, she would sing back lullabies to me in
perfect pitch. By 18 months, she was experimenting constantly at the piano. At just past 2 years, my mother
thought it was my son playing. She was composing tangible pieces since she was 3. By the time she was 4, she
was having pieces published and distributed by Hal Leonard.”
At age 5, Emily made her concert debut at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, playing a 40-minute solo program
performing classical pieces side by side with jazz standards and her own compositions. She was invited to
perform at the White House at age 6. Later that year, she opened for Ramsey Lewis and his Trio with a 30minute set of her own. Her orchestral debut came at age 7, playing Mozart Piano Concerto no. 23, K488 and by
age 8, she was playing concerts abroad in Italy and China. At the age of 9 she made her Carnegie Hall debut with
a 110-piece orchestra, a 220-voice choir, and R&B soloists performing one of her compositions, “Peace – we are
the future.”
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 was invited back on the show five more times –
all in a span of two years, performing original music at each visit. She has since been featured on several major
news programs, including Good Morning America, ABC World News Report with Diane Sawyer, ABC Nightline,
and the Katie Couric Show. Internationally, Emily has been featured in stories on Swiss, German, Australian,
Italian and Chinese television, among others.
In 2011, Emily had yet another big year when she made her debut at the iconic Hollywood Bowl. With more than
11,000 people looking on, Emily played a medley of her own compositions, “The Bumble Boogie” and performed
“Miss Celie’s Blues” (from the score of “The Color Purple”) with singers Gloria Estefan, Patti Austin, Siedah
Garrett and Nikki Yanofsky. That summer, Quincy also presented Emily at the 45th Montreux Jazz Festival in
Switzerland and the Festival Castell in Peralada, Spain where she performed solo as well as with GRAMMY
Award-winner, Esperanza Spalding.
Emily recently performed Schumann’s Piano Concerto in a minor with the Santa Fe Concert Association
Symphony to a sell-out crowd, and premiered 8 new works of her own for orchestra. She also appeared with the
Rockford Symphony Orchestra performing jazz standards to a capacity audience. Now that her hands are finally
large enough to play it, she has mastered 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.
Emily is currently studying classical piano with the Chicago Symphony’s principal keyboardist Mary Sauer and
jazz improvisation with Alan Swain. Emily also studies with Veda Kaplinsky, head of the piano department at
Juillard and Ron Sadoff, head of NYU Film Scoring Department. One of Emily's greatest loves is composing for
film and she has already scored many short films. She is currently being featured on the ASCAP website
Composer Spotlight for her film scoring. Yet like anyone her age, Emily has other interests as well; she loves
swimming, ice skating, designing and making jewelry, baking, spending time with her family and friends, and
going to the beach.
Equally important to Emily as the joy and fun of making music - is putting her talents to the service of good
causes. Profits from each of her songbooks and previous five CDs are donated to charities such as: Susan G.
Komen For The Cure, Children’s Hospitals of Los Angeles and Chicago, UNICEF, and Ronald McDonald House
Charities.
The CD title represents the diversity of Emily's style as well as the diversity of the cultures that are her musical
influences. In turn, through her music, Emily has touched the souls of countless people worldwide and her
natural joy and innate connection to the music, communicates emotion through every note.
BOOKING:
Betsy Berg – betsyberg@theagencygroup.com – The Agency Group, Ltd. 142 W. 57th St. Sixth Floor New York, NY 10019 –
P. 212 581 3100