Five Siblings, Five Pianos, One Stage
Feb. 11, 2005 -- -- When Lisa and Keith Brown decided that all five of their kids should take piano lessons from the age of 3, they never realized that years later the kids would still be playing together -- on five pianos -- all at the same time.
The five Brown children -- Desirae, 25; Deondra, 24; Gregory, 22; Melody, 20; and Ryan, 19 -- have won more than 100 music competitions and have performed with symphonies. Now, as adults, they have one goal in mind: to make classical music popular for young people.
"Classical music has a reputation for stuffy old men in tuxedos getting on stage, and everybody has to know concert etiquette," said Desirae. "And what we're trying to do is make it fun."
To give the public a taste of what the quintet means by "fun," the Browns released their debut CD and DVD, "The 5 Browns" this week.
The Browns practice nearly four hours a day on pianos in different rooms at home, then face each other, playing small pianos in their basement; then they all drive to a store to rehearse on better-quality pianos.
"Whenever we ever play together, it's always been: we look at each other and really listen to each other," Melody Brown says.
Keith Brown says people are always coming over to him and complimenting his children on how talented they are. "We've had some people say, 'Oh, your kids are so talented, so gifted, blah-blah-blah,' you know," he said. "And really, we don't think so. We think that it's a little bit of talent, a little bit of maybe genetic predisposition or something, but in reality --"
"It's a lot of hard work," chimes in his wife.
The two-disc set includes a CD of 11 of the Browns' best songs, plus a DVD showing performances, videos and interviews.
Dukas' "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumble Bee" and Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King," are just a few of the performances featured in the collection.
The Brown children all studied and performed at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York.
Desirae and Deondra are both married and live with their husbands in one house -- next door to the other Browns.
With their CD/DVD coming out and recitals at Juilliard, it appears that they have reached the big time. For a family that relishes a simpler life at home in the mountains of Alpine, Utah, their fame has certainly altered their lives.
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