Introducing The 5 Browns
October 23rd, 2007 by Classical Music Wire Team
Today we received an e-mail from a lady called Natalie, who works at a marketing and consultation company in New York called Two Sheps That Pass. As we are sure is true for most websites we receive a great deal of e-mail every day, but here at Classical Music Wire we are fans of clever wordplay so that company name really caught our attention. Natalie was contacting us to tell us about a group of young classical performers called The 5 Browns.
We had not encountered this particular group until now, but after looking at the information that Natalie sent to us, we believe that our readership would benefit from becoming familiar with their work.
The 5 Browns are brothers and sisters (Ryan, Melody, Gregory, Deondra and Desirae) who perform various combinations from duo to complex five-piano arrangements. It must make life very difficult for the set-arrangers having to squeeze in five pianos, to see what we mean watch this video - you will also be able to enjoy a sampling of their other work there as well.
The quintet have released two albums previously The 5 Browns [Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk] and No Boundaries [Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk], the former was at #1 on the 2005 Billboard Classical Chart for 8 weeks and the latter on the 2006 Billboard Classical Chart for a very respectable 21 weeks. They have just released a new album entitled Browns In Blue [Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk], which includes newly commissioned works by Rachmaninoff, Gershwin and Schubert-Liszt.
Apparently The 5 Browns are also believers in the benefits of philanthropy, they worked with VH1’s Save the Music Foundation last year by performing at a benefit concert to raise money for school music programs. This year they are going to be celebrity members of the NAMM “Wanna Play” campaign, which speaks at High Schools around the United States. In case you are wondering what NAMM stands for, click here.
If you would like to share your thoughts on The 5 Browns, please leave a comment below. Any feedback from our readers is always greatly appreciated.