Now, ranging in age from just 20 to 27, The 5 Browns have already released their second hit CD, in an age when “hit” and “classical” might seem to be contradictions in terms. This year’s new album, No Boundaries, delves deeper into some of the piano repertoire’s most passionate writing, with renderings of Stravinsky’s “Firebird,” Rachmaninoff’s “Valse and Romance,”and, yes, even music from Lowell Liebermann and Witold Lutoslawski that might introduce these composers to audiences who otherwise would never have heard of them. Don’t call them “crossover”: this is full-blooded classical music that’s literally making rooms full of children stand up and cheer. And don’t assume the piano quintets are a gimmick: The Browns have been playing as a quintet for only two years, and in that short time have been fully dedicated to raising the bar with orchestral arrangements and new music that can only work on five pianos. Their new album is a perfect balance of solos and combinations, and a full meal for any keyboard lover. And they’re only getting started: Their new album shows new maturity and growth, and their dedication to expanding their music means you’ll be hearing from them for a long time to come.
To fully understand the dynamics between The Browns, you really only have to put them all in a room. It’s fitting that five pianists who play monster five-piano quintets would all try to talk at the same time when they’re not finishing each other’s sentences. Talking to them is a little like jumping into an improvisatory quintet.
Five pianos — how did that originally come about? I think we all have a picture of you growing up playing five piano quintets, but how did it really start?
Gregory: The Junior Bach Hour International Piano Competition was holding a round for five pianos. And we were like, wow, that’s really weird, and there are five of us, so we might as well do it. That was the first time we did it. We ended up being second.
Desirae: [Pointing to Ryan] This kid was like 11, he could hardly see over the piano.
Gregory: It basically wasn’t until the two oldest were getting ready to graduate. . . . We didn’t really like the rep that was out there for five pianos, so we decided maybe we could get some of our favorite orchestral pieces arranged, which would be really cool. So that’s how it all started.
Deondra: We’re just reviving the monster concerts from back in the day, with Liszt and all those guys.
Desirae: It definitely creates a more fun atmosphere, because that’s what the whole monster concerts were about: Let’s have this big spectacle, but also play through symphonic scores, and just have a great evening of chamber music —
Gregory: — yeah, with Chopin and Liszt! [All five laugh.]
Ryan: It’s not just playing five-piano music, either; it’s always scattered about to make it interesting for the audience.
Gregory: It moves fast, the concerts and the CDs, it’s always changing one, or two, or five. So it keeps the audience awake!
A lot of your playing is in solos and duos. Does it feel different to play with five pianos at once?
Melody: It’s actually more free to play with the five —
Desirae: — which is funny!
Melody: It’s just more relaxed. I look around, I see their faces, and somebody’s got a funny face on. It lightens me up. And the music, like playing the “Firebird” onstage: that’s just something incredible, with the sound and the energy. It’s different from playing even in a chamber group. The sound is just enormous.
Deondra: But it’s nice that we’re all soloists, because we bring that to the group. We’re all very particular about our individual parts and how it works together. So I think the fact that we were all trained so intensely separately helps bring a lot to the group.
Five pianos is a big sound, but in your work, things are very clear. How do you keep the elements of the music focused when you have five pianos competing?
Deondra: It can be really muddy with that many pianos, so you have to really focus in on what you want to bring out and balance everyone else accordingly.
Gregory: A lot of people just thought it couldn’t be done. Five pianos is just going to be a wash of sound, and no one’s going to be able to hear anything.
Deondra: A bunch of soloists pounding away.
Gregory: You really have to lose your egos when it comes to five pianos. You’ve got to know when you can come out and when you’ve got to be in the back —
Ryan: — when you’re too loud.
Deondra: And we’ll tell ya.
Desirae: Like, aaaahhhh! What is wrong with you? You’re too loud!
Deondra: Basically, being family helps so much. You can be really honest and get to the point, but after rehearsal’s over, we just walk away, and everything is fine.
You talk about the fact that there wasn’t good five piano repertoire available when you started out. What are you looking for in your five-piano arrangements, now that you have your own arrangers with whom you can work?
Ryan: We’re taking it basically straight from the real orchestra scores of the pieces. It’s hard when you put that into five of the same instrument, because you can’t just bring a part out like a trumpet or a violin solo.
Melody: You’re not going to be able to have the same colors as an orchestra.
Desirae: But there are other strengths that come along with it. The percussive and rhythmic aspects of the music that sometimes can get watered down in the orchestral version become really prominent, especially in West Side Story or —
Melody: — even in Barber.
Desirae: It brings out different elements that you didn’t quite focus in on with the orchestral version.
Melody: When we were looking at different arrangers and composers, it was hard because a lot of them wanted to just double up everything. And we don’t like doubling. It’s fine to double up in certain areas, but the whole thing? It’s like, okay, you might as well have just written this for like, two or three pianos. So we’re very particular about everyone having an equal part, and a challenging part.
Desirae: It becomes something of a sonic spectacle rather than just a visual one. Hearing melodies coming at you from so many different places, with piano music: it sounds cool.
Deondra: We told them to make it hard, too.
Now, The 5 Browns really come across in a different way than many classical artists. Unfortunately, some people have used the word “crossover,” which I know you don’t like. So how do you think about the way in which you present the group?
Desirae: An article done somewhere recently said something about crossover. It’s like a bad word for us.
Deondra: If you want to talk about the marketing, yeah, it’s crossover. But the music is pure classical.
Gregory: That was one of our big things at the beginning, when we were deciding which record label to go with. We wanted to find someone who had our same vision. Sony/BMG said, right off, “We want to keep the music strictly classical.”
Melody: Actually, when we auditioned for the record companies, we didn’t play any five-piano music. The most we did was Mozart Triple.
Deondra: So they signed us without knowing that. It’s cool that the record company didn’t try to make this group, and try to have us do something that’s more spectacular, or whatever. This was our idea, down to the photos and everything, and the music. All of that has been a conscious decision by the five of us.
Of course, there was a generation of players before yours that was very much in the popular sphere. Are there obstacles that are keeping audiences from this music, and is there a way to remove those obstacles?
Ryan: Obviously, we don’t want people going crazy like in a pop concert, but we want them to have that same kind of feeling where they can sit back, relax, and have fun listening to the music.
Gregory: This music is meant to be heard, and meant to be enjoyed by tons of people. So why limit the numbers of people who can listen to it?
Desirae: You can raise the question, would Liszt have been criticized nowadays for being a showman and a superstar? Why can’t we bring some of that showmanship back?
Gregory: Classical music has only been put into this little bubble over the past 100 years or less. That stuff is not needed. The music was written when classical music was the popular music of the day and people could outwardly express having their joy for that. Why does that have to be different now?
Desirae: Classical music will stay alive as long as our culture and our society relate to the music, and they feel emotionally connected. When that stops happening, when it feels like something in a museum case, it will die off. But great music, just like great literature, like great ballet, great theater — it will survive as long as people still connect with it.
Gregory: People growing up in this next generation, an MTV generation, they’re totally fed on pop culture and they can’t relate to the stuffy old man in a tuxedo onstage. Why not try and bring this music to this new generation by being a part of that generation?
Desirae: You have all these theories when you set out on a project. In this past year since we’ve started touring, we’ve seen that come to life. A third of the audience is college age and younger, which is ridiculous for classical concerts. And they’re like cheering and whooping it up at the end. We’ve just now started working with VH1’s Save the Music which lines up with our goals and things we want to do. It’s been amazing.
Gregory: After the concert’s over we go out to the lobby just so we can meet as many people as we can, and there are so many kids who line up so they can talk to us and shake our hands.
Melody: I think we all agree that music is important. We’ve seen how much it’s done for our lives in giving us depth, intellect.
Ryan: It helps you think.
Desirae: Because in classical music, all the emotions we express in art, anger, hate, love, joy, angst — it’s amplified in classical music. There’s so much more to express because you have more material to deal with. If people can experience these emotions through music, it makes them better understand themselves, and each other.