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5 Browns add modern dash to classical set

Nobody could have planned it. It's preposterous. The Browns play in various combinations solo, duet, duo, trio, six hands, quintet. When the three ladies play "Clair de Lune" on one piano, their long, slender white arms look like six swans gracefully nodding to the keyboard. Otherwise, the Browns play with almost violent passion, attacking the keyboard, heads hammering or lolling to the music, eyes closed or stealing looks at each other to maintain their timing, which is so impeccable that five pianos sound as one. There weren't even any fivepiano arrangements when they began their professional careers five years ago. Stiff, formal performers have been replaced by smiling young adults exchanging lively banter with the audience. Between each number, one of them approaches the microphone and explains, like, the history of the next, like, number, or, you know, like how they feel about the next piece in a way that's, like, humorous, endearing and informative."It's supposed to be entertaining," Deondra says. The audience dresses much the same."Why not take this pure music and reset it in modern times?" Desirae asks. "It doesn't have to be a museum in tuxes."The Browns even add a dash of pop showmanship. Egged on by members of the audience during a concert in Salt Lake City last winter, Greg played Aaron Kernis' "Superstar Etude No. 1" with his fingers, hands, elbows, forearms and feet, beating the keys at warp speed, punctuated by a "yahoo!," leaving dazzled neophytes wondering, "What did I just see?"Welcome to classical music, MTV style. This was all part of the plan to capture a modern audience for classical music. Just as they were launching their professional careers early in 2003, Greg wrote a letter to Joel Diamond, a Grammy Awardwinning producer and manager in Los Angeles, explaining the direction the group wanted to pursue."I have been very troubled with the way things have been going in the classical music world," he wrote. "The audience for our art is growing thinner and thinner because its devotees are growing older and older. So far, few attempts have been made to bring this music to a new and younger audience . these few attempts were ultimately unsuccessful . because they failed to be accepted by both the classical world and the pop world.""My family has been given a rare gift that I know could help change the way classical music is perceived by Americans. We have . studied at the most elite music school in the country; this gives us validity in the classical world. We also happen to be young, we're outgoing and we have a modern look, and, according to most people, we have an intriguing story; this gives us appeal and marketability in the pop world. I truly believe that (we) can be this vehicle that could help save classical music by introducing it to a new generation . After boxing and hauling five 9foot Steinway grand pianos from Wendover to the Salt Flats, the group's crew raced to assemble them again before sunset.

They had time for only two takes."We market it like a pop album, but the music is classical," Melody says. "A lot of older people say, 'We've never seen so many young people at a classical concert; this gives me hope for your generation."'Performing 80 to 120 concerts a year, the Browns are booked through 2009. They say they could book 200 concerts annually, if they didn't choose to have a home life; instead, they tour for two weeks, return home, then tour for two more weeks and so on. They'll be performing in Las Vegas on Sept. 8."Their concerts sell out, and half the audience are kids," Diamond says. Lisa studied opera and wanted to expose her children to music, if for no other reason than to keep them busy. Ryan, who once hid for several hours to avoid practice until a familywide search discovered him in a cardboard box, told his parents one day that he might want to quit."But when my parents asked me, 'Do you really want to quit?' it hit me," says Ryan. "Wow, I didn't want to quit.""Who wants to work when you could be outside playing?" Greg says. daily. They liked pop music, sports and school activities. The girls scoffed: "We're not good enough. After one semester at Juilliard they urged their siblings to join them. The other three children auditioned for Juilliard's precollege program, and all three were offered full scholarships."Usually kids arranged to have guardians there, but we wanted to be with them," Keith says. The Browns had long ago mortgaged their future for their children's music, paying for private lessons, Steinway pianos, travel to contests, home schooling, sheet music, piano tuning and maintenance, all multiplied by five. They were paying more for piano lessons each month ($1,000) than for rent ($850)."We were nearly broke when we left Utah," Lisa says. The situation worsened in New York, where their cost of living tripled. They burned up their scant savings to pay moving expenses and survived by maxing out credit cards. Ryan continued to attend Juilliard's precollege program by commuting to New York. The BBC learned there were five siblings attending Juilliard two in the master's program, two in the undergrad program, one in the precollege program. What were the odds?Geri Halliwell (aka Ginger Spice) showed up with a camera crew to do the story. This started a run of herd journalism. The London Telegraph did its own story, then the New York Times, "Oprah," People Magazine, "60 Minutes" and more than two dozen other major news agencies. Unable to sleep one night because of an illness, he was channelsurfing when he saw Ryan performing in a PBS talent contest and decided he would be a perfect addition to a boy band he was trying to assemble. But as they closed the conversation, Keith said, "Just so you know, there are four more just like him."Diamond, whose 36 years in the music business has been in pop, was intrigued. For the next three years he contacted the Browns periodically with various poprelated proposals, all of which were rejected. Diamond had the connections to pull it off. The five Browns performed one day for label executives and the next day for booking agencies in a New York Steinway store. Sony, BMG,

Atlantic, Universal, Columbia, William and Morris, and IMG were there. Within a week, every one of them had contacted the Browns to sign them."I've been in this business a long time, and let me tell you it's rare to get callbacks from every label and agency wanting them," Diamond says. "I knew there was something special here."The Browns signed with BMG (which later merged with Sony) in March 2004 and released their first CD a year later."It was Joel Diamond's efforts and connections that resulted in a record deal and led to concert tours," Keith says. "Otherwise, probably none of it would have happened."Family unityIt could be recipe for trouble five siblings, thrown together for weeks at a time, combined with the irritations of travel, erratic sleep, hotels, the occasional bad meal, and the drudgery of rehearsals, not to mention the potential for jealousies on stage. But a couple of days into our break, we're calling each other 'Hey, guys, want to get together and do something?' It sounds lame, but we are friends."From the outset, they laid out a plan to preserve the friendship. Lisa sorts through music to compile music to submit to arrangers for the 5 Browns to perform. The three sisters of the group are married, and two of the couples share a house next door to their parents' home. All except Ryan have master's degrees. After completing Juilliard's precollege program, Ryan was leery of the inevitable comparisons to his siblings and chose to attend Manhattan School of Music over Juilliard, ending a nineyear run of Browns enrolled at the famous conservatory. He dropped out a year short of his undergrad degree to pursue a professional career with his siblings. Greg is pursuing a doctorate in piano performance at the University of Utah."We've come to the realization that things will change through the years," Melody says. "We're going to want to start families. We'll constantly be reevaluating schedules and making sure everyone is happy in the group."Melody married two months before she had planned, simply because it was the only hole in the group's schedule. When the five of them sat for a lengthy interview at their home, they began nearly every answer by identifying themselves "This is Desirae . " mindful that the interviewer was just learning to place their names with faces."They were kind of embarrassed by the contract and the attention when they were at Juilliard," Keith says. "They were never the best at Juilliard. They've succeeded because they have something different.""They have a certain charm, and it's reflected in their performances. When they're on stage, people connect with them."They have a strong sense of purpose, and their record label, Keith says, "has let the kids do their thing the way they dress, their music, photographs ." BMG spent $25,000 on photos of the group in Central Park for their debut CD. The Browns rejected them as being too formal."The kids didn't look like themselves," Lisa says. "They looked like somebody else's kids who resembled them." BMG president Gilbert Heatherwick listened to their concerns and told them, "You've got a point. The first CD is how you represent yourselves." The Browns spent $1,000 to hire their own photographer, Utah's Debra McFarland, for the photos that decorated their first CD."We didn't want to be difficult," Desirae says. "But we almost looked too pretty. We're just normal kids."Normal kids who performed in front of 65,000 people in the Rose Bowl for the 2006 Fourth of July celebration and for 21,000 in the LDS Church's Conference Center for the 95th birthday celebration for the church's late president, Gordon B. Hinckley. Normal kids who cut CDs and travel all over the world."It's been one of those rare times when all the stars lined up," Diamond says.5 million in Canadian Breast CancerFoundation CIBC Run for the Cure