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Artist Profile — The 5 Browns

Quick Links: www.the5browns.com    iTunes Downloads    Amazon.com

Record Label: Sony BMG Masterworks

All photos by: Andrew Southam

CLASSICAL MUSIC’S IRRESISTIBLE CHAMPIONS OF THE STEINWAY PIANO RETURN WITH A NEW RECORDING, NO BOUNDARIES, IN STORES APRIL 4, 2006

After a sensational worldwide debut with their self-titled first album, Steinway Artists The 5 Browns are back with No Boundaries, their all-new recording for RCA Red Seal. No Boundaries features the five piano virtuosos in a wide-ranging selection of music both familiar and rare. Highlighting the recording, which showcases the five playing together and in various combinations, are spellbinding transcriptions of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Stravinsky's The Firebird as well as the new work Simple Gifts/Going Home — variations on Copland's Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts" from Appalachian Spring and Dvorak's "Going Home" theme from his Ninth Symphony. No Boundaries is being released on CD as well as Dual Disc. The new Dual Disc format combines audio and video content on a two-sided disc and features music videos of The 5 Browns performing three tracks from the album. The video portion of the album was shot outdoors in Utah, with five black Steinway grand pianos in dramatic contrast to the snow-white surface of the Bonneville Salt Flats, framed by a beautiful setting of purple mountains in the distance and a pink desert horizon at sunset. No Boundaries will be available in stores Tuesday, April 4, 2006.

Steinway Artists since February 2005, The 5 Browns — Desirae, Gregory, Deondra, Melody, and Ryan — were a great, all-American "story" last year, when the press first learned of their spectacular accomplishments: five attractive and appealing brothers and sisters from Utah who were budding concert pianists studying at the Juilliard School of Music, all at the same time — a first at the prestigious, century-old school. Their story inspired broadcast appearances on Oprah, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, ABC's Good Morning America, NBC's Today Show, CBS's 60 Minutes and National Public Radio's highly rated classical show Performance Today, and extensive print coverage including The New York Times, the North America edition of Gramophone, People, Parade, USA Weekend, Entertainment Weekly, Time Magazine for Kids, Chicago Tribune, Billboard, New York Post, Los Angeles Times and Sunday London Telegraph.

In August 2005 the Browns embarked on a whirlwind tour which will take them across 50 states and to the music capitals of Europe and Asia. The pianists are traveling with 5 Steinway grand pianos — 3 Model B's and 2 Model A's that they personally selected at the Steinway Factory in Long Island City last summer. The family has forged close partnerships with Steinway dealers along the way, reaching out to local communities and inspiring legions of music students. Most recently this month, the Browns were heard at Steinway Hall, Steinway's flagship showroom in New York City on 57th street, rehearsing for the next leg of their tour and taping a segment for Bravo TV. The Five Browns will be featured in several other high-profile television programs in support of the release of No Boundaries, including Martha, ABC-TV's The View, The Tony Danza Show, and NBC-TV's Weekend Today. On April 12, 2006, the Browns make their orchestral debut with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, performing the rarely-heard Mozart Triple Piano Concerto and the Poulenc Double Piano Concerto. Additional symphonic engagements are being scheduled for the 2006-2007 concert season.

A Steinway piano has been a fixture in the Brown's household for quite some time. The very first thing Keith and Lisa Brown bought when they were married in 1977 was a rarely-used 1938 Steinway console piano. Each one of the children began playing on that piano at the age of three years old. A few years later the demand was such that the family needed a second piano, and they then added a 1924 Model M. Soon, as the wait in line to use the pianos stretched out all day, the need for additional pianos became apparent. The Browns briefly owned pianos from other manufacturers, but quickly learned that those pianos didn't have the same sound, touch, quality or reliability as their beloved Steinways. There was always fierce competition to play the Steinways!

Keith and Lisa Brown decided that the four or five hours each one of the children practiced at the piano every day needed to be spent on Steinways. The Juilliard School of Music, an All-Steinway School, was the first choice in music institutions for the Browns, so that they would all have the opportunity to practice exclusively on Steinway instruments. Over the years, the family has added to their Steinway collection, now including a D, L, A and 2 B's.

In their repertoire, style and sound, The 5 Browns stand out individually as well as together. Critics have called Desirae and Deondra a "dynamic duo that exhibits an understanding that verges on telepathy, wrought with enduring seductiveness — leaving their listeners' jaws on the floor." Gregory is a "real bravura performer" with a dynamic personality and technique who "whips the audience into a frenzy." Melody's playing is "elegant" and "the most expressive," critics say, as "she presents a plethora of imaginative colorations," and Ryan is an "imaginative storyteller" who "exploits his fluid fingers and instinctive sense of drama."

With a title that expresses everything the Browns feel about classical music and its potential, No Boundaries showcases the individual talents of each of the Browns.

In addition to the three selections arranged for five pianos, the disc includes the two-piano duo of Desirae and Deondra in Witold Lutoslawski's Variations on a Theme of Paganini, the two-piano duo of Gregory and Ryan in "Malagueña" from Ernesto Lecuona's Andalucia Suite, and the trio of Desirae, Deondra and Melody — six hands, one piano — in Sergei Rachmaninoff's Valse and Romance. Desirae and Deondra perform as a duet (four hands, one piano) in the "Feria" section of Maurice Ravel's Rhapsodie espagnole.

Gregory, Melody and Ryan are also heard in solo works. Gregory performs Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 and American composer John Novacek's "Full Stride Ahead Rag." Melody plays the Allegro moderato and Presto feroce from American composer Lowell Lieberman's Gargoyles, Op. 29, and Ryan is heard in the three-movement Danzas argentinas, Op. 2, by the Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera.

For more information on The 5 Browns and their upcoming appearances , please visit http://www.the5browns.com.