Emily Bear

A few nights ago I was practicing the piano and wanted to hear a recording of a particular song. I searched for it on my best friend YouTube and stumbled upon recordings by Emily Bear by whom I’m now totally captivated.

I’m not easily impressed by child prodigies as a lot of times they are kids who showed an early aptitude for music after which they were more or less forced to practice constantly, and as little kids, they can memorize like crazy. These kids play better and have a broader repertoire than most adults, but generally they lack emotion, creativity and general musicality (which is fine, hello—they are kids).

While Emily’s life does appear to revolve completely around being a piano prodigy, she is different in a few ways. A) She looks genuinely happy when she plays the piano. B) This kid writes music which possesses emotion, depth, and beautiful chord progressions. C) There is nothing mathematical about her playing. You can tell this stuff comes from her heart. She plays with real sensitivity and dynamics which as a child are very unique to her.

Enough of my talking, here’s a video of her playing one of her compositions. Enjoy.

(Oh, and when I heard her playing Doctor Gradus Ad Parnassum, I thought—oh, THAT’S what that song was supposed to sound like when I played it at age 17.)