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A sellout crowd of more than 1,100 people found that out Tuesday night at a Bright Star Season concert at Viterbo University.
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With their Steinway pianos in configuration the 5 Browns, Deondra (clockwise from left), Ryan, Melody, Desirae, and Gregory rehearse Tuesday afternoon for their evening show at the Viterbo Fine Arts Center.
PETER THOMSON photo
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An instant standing ovation rewarded the quintet of pianists for an evening of great performances and classical music — and the crowd got an encore, “Flight of the Bumblebee.”
The 20-somethings — Ryan, Melody, Gregory, Deondra and Desirae Brown — are a fabulous family of pianists, all classically trained at Juilliard.
The 5 Browns don’t dumb down their classical program to attract new audiences.
On five pianos, they played some of classical music’s best pieces — Rachmaninoff’s 18th variation from “Rhapsody on a Theme from Paganini” to Stravinsky’s “The Firebird,” a fitting and exuberant ending of musical colors.
Then there were the three sisters playing a gorgeous arrangement of Debussy’s “Claire de lune” on one piano, Deondra performing a Grieg piece and Gregory playing Prokofiev.
The audience got a chance to ask questions, and Gregory Brown even let the audience choose between two pieces. The audience picked a Jerry Lee Lewis rock-like classical number in which Gregory even played with his foot on the keyboard.
The 5 Browns are cute, funny, wholesome and all-American. They’re just entertaining and plain fun. Long may they play together.
Terry Rindfleisch can be reached at trindfleisch@lacrossetribune.com or (608) 791-8227.
