The 5 Browns are delivering on their dream to wake up classical music by introducing it to the widest, largest and most excited audience they can find. Whether performing individually or together in various combinations from duo to complex five-piano arrangements, The 5 Browns reveal a deep connection to the intent of their material while bringing a fresh energy and dynamic character to the color and tonal spectrum of their sound.
The 5 Browns – Ryan, Melody, Gregory, Deondra and Desirae – all attended New York’s Juilliard School. In fact, they became the first family of five siblings ever accepted simultaneously. The quintet enjoyed their first wave of critical attention in February 2002 when People magazine dubbed them the “Fab Five” at about the same time they were featured on Oprah and 60 Minutes. The 5 Browns have released 3 CDs that each went to #1 on Billboard Magazine’s Classical Album Chart. The New York Post has proclaimed: “One family, five pianos and 50 fingers add up to the biggest classical music sensation in years…When these kids do Rachmaninoff, they’ll make you forget about Marshall amps.”
The quintet has garnered extensive coverage from media outlets ranging from The Tonight Show, Good Morning America, The Today Show, and The View, to CNN, Fox and Friends, Public Radio’s Performance Today, as well as The New York Times, Parade, People, the Los Angeles Times, the Sunday London Telegraph and Entertainment Weekly.
In addition to touring, The 5 Browns are published writers. Their book, Life Between the Keys, a lighthearted collection of personal stories, was published by Phoenix Books in March 2009.
The group was also featured in a PBS TV special, “The 5 Browns In Concert,” which aired on PBS stations throughout the country.
A highlight for the quintet was a commissioned five-piano concerto written by famed composer Nico Mühly. Under the direction of Maestro James Conlon, the concerto premiered in 2011 at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
The 5 Browns were awarded honorary doctorates from Utah Valley University on May 2, 2019, where they also gave the keynote address during the university’s 78th commencement exercises.
The 5 Browns are managed by IMG Artists, LLC, and are exclusive Steinway Artists.
Rhapsody in Blue
George Gershwin/Jeffrey Shumway (9:45)
The 5 Browns
Grande Tarantelle, Op. posth. 67
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (5:32)
Gregory and Ryan Brown
Flight of the Bumblebee
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov/Jeffrey Shumway (1:40)
The 5 Browns
Nocturne in C Minor, Op. 48 No. 1
Frederic Chopin (6:20)
Gregory Brown
Mass in B Minor BWV 232
Johann Sebastian Bach/The 5 Browns (6:27)
Et incarnatus
Et expecto
The 5 Browns
Scenes from West Side Story
Leonard Bernstein/Kendall Durelle Briggs (7:20)
The 5 Browns
---INTERMISSION---
Star Wars: Suite for Five Pianos
John Williams/Greg Anderson (9:52)
The 5 Browns
Variations on a Theme of Paganini for Two Pianos
Witold Lutoslawski (5:52)
Deondra and Desirae Brown
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
Franz Liszt/Vladimir Horowitz (9:36)
Stephen Beus
Blackbird
The Beatles/The 5 Browns (3:22)
The 5 Browns
The Firebird (from the 1911 Version)
Igor Stravinsky/Jeffrey Shumway (8:57)
The 5 Browns
“Strikingly original... an interpretive voice all his own” (Fanfare Magazine). In the space of four months, American pianist Stephen Beus won first prize in the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, first place in the Vendome Prize International Competition (Lisbon) and he was awarded the Max I. Allen Fellowship of the American Pianists Association (Indianapolis).
As a result of winning the Juilliard School Concerto Competition Mr. Beus made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Juilliard Orchestra and James DePreist, playing Prokofiev Concerto No. 3. He has also performed as guest soloist with the Gulbenkian Symphony (Lisbon), Oxford Philomusica, the Tivoli Symphony (Copenhagen), the Tbilisi National Opera Orchestra, the Northwest Sinfonietta (Seattle), the Royal Philharmonic of Morocco (Casablanca), the Vaasa Symphony Orchestra (Finland) as well as with the Hamburg, Indianapolis, Nashville, Santa Fe, Utah, Fort Worth, Tucson, Yakima, Bellevue, Salt Lake, Eastern Sierra, Corvallis, Jacksonville, Texarkana and Walla Walla Symphonies.
Equally active as a soloist, Mr. Beus has performed at Wigmore Hall, the Salle Gaveau and Salle Cortot (Paris), Merkin Hall, the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, the Central Conservatory (Beijing), Teatro San Carlo (Naples), Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), the Queluz Palace (Lisbon) and has performed for the Dame Myra Hess and Fazioli Salon series (Chicago), the International Keyboard Institute and Festival (New York City), and has given recitals across the United States as well as in Kazakhstan, Russia, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Georgia, China, France, Italy, Portugal, the Czech Republic, and Morocco.
Born and raised on a farm in eastern Washington, Mr. Beus began lessons at age 5 and made his orchestral debut four years later. He went on to win numerous national and international competitions throughout his youth, capturing the attention of both audiences and critics. Commenting on Mr. Beus’ competition success, Fanfare magazine writes: “In some ways Beus doesn’t fit the mold of the typical competition winner. His playing is strikingly original and, despite his youth, he has an interpretive voice all his own… Above all, his playing is so natural as to seem effortless and the sound he produces has extraordinary richness and depth, not quite like anyone else’s.”
Mr. Beus holds degrees from Whitman College, The Juilliard School, and Stony Brook University, and his teachers have included Leonard Richter, Robert McDonald, Gilbert Kalish, Christina Dahl, and Paulette Richards. He has recorded on the Endeavor Classics, Harmonia Mundi, and Centaur Records labels. Stephen Beus is a Steinway Artist and currently teaches at Brigham Young University.
