They are all Juilliard-trained pianists, after all, so musically they have a lot to give.
Nothing would ever be the same again.įortunately, primarily for them but also for their fans, they found a way to continue performing, and finally jettisoned their parents as managers, even putting their father in prison, where he remains to this day. Melody, it turned out, had similarly been targeted. In the course of a particularly grueling world tour, in 2007, the two eldest sisters, ever-more distraught, confided in each other of their father’s sexual assault and rape. Raised and homeschooled by an ambitious father and mother, Keith and Lisa Brown, the siblings – in birth order, Desirae, Deondra, Gregory, Melody and Ryan – grew up with the outward illusion of happiness but the inward truth of parental control and abuse. For those viewers (like me) not in the loop, we sense a simmering tension without fully understanding its roots, though there are hints that, with hindsight, were hard to miss. Indeed, Niles ( Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037) brings us right into the middle of a fraught drama of familial ties frayed to the breaking point, introducing his subjects as they gather to record a new album, which they hope will offer, to themselves, solace and healing.
Thanks to director Ben Niles’ comprehensive, engaging documentary portrait of the siblings, entitled The 5 Browns: Digging Through the Darkness, I feel like I know them well, informed by the kind of intimacy that close-up movie profiles can offer. Since that ignorance has now been remedied, in a way both inspiring and haunting, allow me to share their story with you.
Though they have been performing together publicly as a family – on five pianos, one apiece – for close to two decades, The 5 Browns had heretofore remained unknown to me. Lead Critic Chris Reed was there so stay tuned for his review and interviews…) ( The 9th annual DOC NYCran November 8-15 in New York City.
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