August 10
The Pabst Theater
Family and ivory
It’s what happens when brothers and sisters stop fighting and learn to play nice with one another.
Desirae, Deondra, Gregory, Melody and Ryan Brown, otherwise known as The 5 Browns, are a quintet of classically trained pianists. They also are siblings.
And on Tuesday they came to perform at the Cailloux Theater as part of the Kerrville Performing Arts Society’s Concert Series. The group performed a KPAS outreach program for area elementary school children in the morning before giving a full concert at night.
“We all started at about age three,” said Ryan Brown, the youngest. “I think I saw my older brother and sisters playing and thought that would be cool.”
One by one, the Brown children, who now range in age from 30 to 23, took up the piano. And as they began to fight over practice time, their parents eventually purchased four more pianos. The pianos followed the siblings to Juilliard, where they honed their talents for tinkling the ivories.
They all trained as soloist before teaming up for their first album and tour in 2005. Their self-titled debut album spent eight weeks at the top of the Billboard Classical chart. Since then, the musical siblings have released two more albums, an autobiography, traveled the globe and made numerous national television appearances.
“There has never been much sibling rivalry actually,” said Gregory Brown. “I think, if anything, we inspire each other.”
Not only do the 20-something musicians inspire each other, but they look to inspire a generation of children being raised on Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers, children who may not otherwise be exposed to the music of composers like Claude Debussy and Frederic Chopin.
“Like with anything, classical music needs to adapt,” said Ryan Brown.
Striking a chord with their younger audience, The 5 Browns performed wearing trendy clothes and plugged their videos on YouTube. They compared one of their pieces, “Mars, The Bringer of War,” by Gustav Holst, to the “Darth Vader music” from “Star Wars,” which got the young crowd on the edge of their seats.
There is no denying that piano has taken The 5 Browns far, and the musicians are grateful they stayed with it through all the practicing, memorization and performing.
“Our parents actually tried to get us to play other instruments when we were younger,” said Desirae Brown. “I took flute lessons and was just awful at it, so I think it’s a good thing I stuck with piano.”
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