Your Chicago: Piano Prodigy Emily Bear
(CBS) -- She's making a name for herself as a composer and has already performed at the White House and Carnegie Hall.
Emily Bear is only 12 years old, but if you close your eyes and listen she is ageless
"I wouldn't call it a gift," she tells CBS 2's Kate Sullivan. "I would call it something that I'm good at it."
Her mother, Andrea, definitely calls it a gift and has since her daughter was 2.
"Around two years old is when it really became very apparent. I was just like 'Oh, she's just a little kid, she's just dabbling,'" she says. "She just gravitated to the piano all the time."
Soon, she was playing whole songs without a single sheet of music. It was a talent her mother knew she had to nourish.
Fast forward 11 years, and now Emily is releasing her sixth CD, one that Quincy Jones helped produce.
Jones calls her "the complete 360 degree package" and an inspiration.
There have been six appearances on the Ellen Degeneres show.
All of these amazing moments came after some serious hard work.
Mary Sauer has been with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 54 years. At age six, Emily was her first very young student.
"I am pleased with the progress she has made," Sauer says.
But there is more hard work to do, and more goals for Emily to achieve. She hopes to score films and perform.
For more information about Emily, click here. Her music is available on iTunes and Amazon.
Emily will be featured at the 35th Anniversary Gala for Camp One Step At a Time -- a summer camp for kids with cancer -- on Nov. 7 at the Chicago Cultural Center
