She studied jazz improvisation with Frank Kimbrough and composing with Ron Sadoff, head of NYU Steinhardt film scoring department.

[30] Later in 2011, she appeared with him at the Hollywood Bowl, where she played a medley of her own arrangement, "Bumble Boogie" and accompanied "Miss Celie's Blues", from The Color Purple, sung by Gloria Estefan, Patti Austin, Siedah Garrett and Nikki Yanofsky.

[11][31] Jones stated: "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.

[39] Jeff Tamarkin wrote for JazzTimes: Bear is a gifted (if not quite virtuosic yet) pianist ... who understands innately the role of her instrument in both solo and group capacities.

... [T]here's nothing childlike about Bear's music: While some of her classically informed ballads teeter on the edge of new age, she never quite falls into that hole; she already knows the difference between jazz and Muzak.

With many super-talented children, there's often a sense that some sort of rote mechanism takes over and guides them, but Diversity feels like the work of an artist of depth and sensitivity.

[52] Holly Harris wrote for the Winnipeg Free Press: "After wowing the crowd with a two-hour program of jazz and classical music selections, [Bear] tossed off Gershwin's knuckle-busting Rhapsody in Blue as easily as child's play.

[55] In 2015, Bear won another ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award for her orchestral piece "Les Voyages".

[57][58] Bear appears on the 2015 Broadway Cast Recording of the musical Doctor Zhivago playing a solo piano version of "He's There".

[63] In August 2016, she was featured in a Disney Channel program, performing the song "Reflection", from the film Mulan, with singer Laura Marano.

... [She] tears percussively through her short and tightly composed originals 'Old Office' and 'Je Ne Sais Pas', before showing her willowy ballad chops on 'Araignee'.

"[72] Luiz Orlando Carneiro of Jornal do Brasil felt that "Old Office" is driven by chords that refer to Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night in Tunisia"; "Je ne sais" pas has a bossa nova beat; "Indigo", also with a bossa nova feel, is more melancholy; and "Tiger Lily" has a theme that recalls Thelonious Monk's "It's Over Now".

[82] In November 2017, Bear performed the piano score to The Cat Concerto live at the Hollywood Bowl, accompanying screenings of the 1947 Tom and Jerry short.

[83][84] From late November to December, Bear performed at Night of the Proms 2017, a 25-concert arena tour in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg.

[85] In each concert, she played "Epilogue" from the film La La Land, led her orchestral/choir arrangements of "Skyfall" and "Crazy", composed an improvised musical story based on a suggestion by an audience member, and played "Bumble Bear Boogie" and part of Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto, leading into "All by Myself" with John Miles, among other things.

[88] Bear was a 2018 recipient of Illinois' Order of Lincoln Award, the state's highest honor for professional achievement and public service.

[94] In February 2019, Bear played with the World Doctors Orchestra in Israel to benefit Save a Child's Heart and also sang together with Ester Rada.

[103] The critic for Rockford Register Star wrote: "The songs pair her jazzy pop-charged vocals with her ability to write catchy tunes.

[109] The two performed songs from the musical in New York City at Elsie Fest in August 2021[110] and in London in November with Bear at the piano.

[111] Bear orchestrated and produced a concept album consisting of 15 of the songs, The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical, which she and Barlow released on September 10, 2021.

[113] Bear and Barlow performed their song "Ocean Away" with Darren Criss at the Kennedy Center 50th anniversary concert in September, which aired on PBS on October 1, 2021.

[116] Also in 2021 Bear orchestrated and conducted "The Magic Is Calling", an anthem written to celebrate Walt Disney World's 50th anniversary,[117] scored, with Brooke Blair, two episodes of the streaming series The Premise,[118][119] and composed the music for the KCET documentary Life Centered: The Helen Jean Taylor Story, for which she won a 2022 Los Angeles Area Emmy Award.

[123] She and Barlow performed "Burn for You" from their Bridgerton album on Today in April[124] and "Alone Together" on The Kelly Clarkson Show in May,[125] and in July, Bear participated in the PBS concert A Capitol Fourth in Washington, D.C.[126] Also in July, Bear and Barlow performed their album live in concert with the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Steven Reineke, and guest stars including Kelli O'Hara, at the Kennedy Center.

[127] In late July 2022, Netflix sued Bear and Barlow in U.S. federal court for copyright infringement, claiming that they had objected to any for-profit live concerts of the songs.

The satirical musical's true story concerns the eponymous fan-favorite item at Taco Bell, Mexican pizza, which was removed from, and later returned to, its menus.

[2] Nell Minow of RogerEbert.com called it "a fine score",[133] while Jonathan Broxton of Movie Music UK wrote: The whole thing overflows with charm and warmth, and is awash in beautifully sentimental string passages, backed by appealing woodwind writing, and enlivened with moments of sprightly piano-led effervescence, light comedy, and entertaining action featuring lively guitars and jovial percussion.

Some of the music occasionally has a country twang, both in its orchestrations, and in some of the slurred accents at the end of the string phrases, which increases its tonal appeal.

... [T]he orchestrations ... are, on the whole, terrific [and] bring a sense of sparkling movement, and a lightness of touch ... which just give the entire work an inviting and engaging personality.

[137] Barlow and Bear wrote songs for the film Moana 2, the youngest composers, and the first female writing team for an animated Disney movie.

[140] In 2024, Bear scored the indie film K-Pops!,[141] which a reviewer called a "killer soundtrack",[142] and the Netlix movie Our Little Secret.