|
Summarized by Rosemary Pollock
Five LDS Brown Siblings At Juliard
NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- All the Brown's wanted to do was teach their
five children to learn to play a musical instrument. It was
important to them that they be able to sing Christmas carols around
the piano or maybe play at church. But five pianists? All at
the same conservancy? It has been a dream come true, or is it a
nightmare?
All five of the Brown children are studying piano at Juilliard, where
twoare freshman, Gregory, 17 and Melody, 16. Two are
seniors, Desirae, 21 and Deondra, 20. Ryan, 14 attends the precollege
program. Officials at the school say it is a first at the conservatory, which only accepts one
of every nine applicants.
"It is amazing how different they are in their music-making and
the direction of their talent," said Yoheved Kaplinsky, a popular
Juillard teacher and chairwoman of the piano department. "It's
difficult to say at this point which one will succeed the most." "I do
know that each one is talented enough to make a niche for themselves in the music world if
they so choose," Kaplinsky said.
The Browns are from Utah and currently rent a five-bedroom brick
house in Hartsdale, N.Y. The house is crammed with five grand
pianos. "If you stand in one place, you can hear Saint-Saens in one room, Chopin in
another, Rachmaninoff in another," said the pianists' father, who often
goes outside to use the phone.
Lisa and Keith Brown, both 44, homeschool their children as the only
way they could find the time to practice four to six hours a day as well
as lead a normal life. "It's not the Brady Bunch," Kaplinsky
said. "But the nice thing about it is they know how to resolve conflicts. The
bottom line is the family needs to remain intact. Somebody always knows how to
back off enough to continue."
Margery Franklin, a professor at Sarah Lawrence College in
Bronxville, N.Y. specializes in the psychology of art. She has questioned
the wisdom of having all five study with the same teacher. "It's hard to
say whether it's healthy or not, but this was the wish of the family," she
said.
This year the Brown's tuition for Juilliard, including the required
room and board for the two freshman, will total $87,000. The
students receive a partial scholarship and have taken out loans. "We're
always in financial crisis," said Keith Brown. The sacrifices are always
worth it, but he is still a bit perplexed at how his life came to revolve around 88 keys,
or more precisely, 440.
Source:
Harmonious Brown family carves niche in piano world
Houston TX Chronicle (New York Times) 21Sep00 A2
By Daniel J. Wakin
|
