At our upcoming concert, The Music of Inon Zur at the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday, November 20, 2022 at 7:00 PM, the LAJS will be joined by featured artist Emily Bear. A Grammy and Emmy Award-winning composer, producer, and chart-topping recording artist since her professional debut at age five, Bear has achieved groundbreaking success as a pianist, composer, orchestrator, producer and singer-songwriter, transcending genres in jazz, classical, pop, scoring for media, and musical theater.
Emily has also been a frequent collaborator of Maestra Green and the LAJS for more than five years. Maestra Green reflects on our shared history with the incredible young musician below.
Notes from the Maestra
I met Emily when she and I shared the Soraya stage at a fundraiser for Save a Child’s Heart in January 2017. I was conducting the show with the LA Jewish Symphony and she was approached by the organization to be a featured guest artist. She was taken with their mission – as was I – and so we found ourselves contributing our talents to this most worthy organization.
I invited Emily and her mom, Andrea, to stay the week in our guest house rather than a hotel, and a lifetime friendship developed between our families. Emily was just 15 at the time and I was taken with her über talent. Beyond that, her generosity of spirit and her positive energy were infectious. At the time she was looking for direction and a place to stay in LA to explore the performing and composing world here. With her family’s blessing, Emily spent several months in our home. I became her LA Mama and an unbreakable bond developed.
Emily and Maestra Green at the Save a Child’s Heart concert in 2017.
As Emily became successful in her dreams, we remained close. At her request, I flew to Rockford, Illinois, to conduct the premiere of her piece “And Forever Free” at the ceremony bestowing her with the Order of Lincoln Award; at age 16, Emily was the youngest-ever recipient. In 2019, Emily performed at our 25th Anniversary Gala, and just recently we performed together for a fundraiser in Anguilla. I am so proud of her accomplishments – 21 years old and she has a Grammy and an Emmy!
Emily performs the premiere of ‘And Forever Free’ – conducted by Maestra Green – at the ceremony presenting Emily with the Order of Lincoln Award.
When Inon Zur started to score the video game Syberia: The World Before, he reached out to me to put him in touch with Emily – he felt she would be the perfect person to perform the piano solos in the game as the lead character is a Holocaust survivor and pianist. Emily has a Jewish soul. Over the years we have shared many Shabbat and holidays together. Emily was honored to be asked by Inon, and the rest, as they say, is history.
It was so gratifying to hear the development of the music and to be the bridge between Inon and Emily. I was honored to receive the first pressing of the LP of the music, and I am beyond thrilled to premiere the Concert Suite of this extraordinary music. Just as the great film composers have created music that are favorites at concerts, I know that this Concert Suite for Piano and Orchestra will take its rightful place among the greats.
Tickets are on sale now for The Music of Inon Zur – click the link below to get your tickets today!