Catch the rising stars - Rising Stars - at Music Teachers National Association Conference - Calendar

American Music Teacher, Feb-March, 2003 by Ann Milliman Gipson

The Brown family had to be creative when trying to find enough hours in the day to accommodate school, homework and practice. During the initial stages of piano study, when the children were quite young, practice time was limited to fifteen to twenty minutes a day, but had been quickly extended to an hour per day by the time each child was 4. By the time the oldest was 11, practice time had been increased to four hours a day and up to six hours a day prior to competitions. With so much practice time required, the family was having to start their day at 4:30 A.M. just to give the children time to include some practice before school, with the remainder of practice done after school. Since this was such a rigorous schedule, Keith and Lisa decided to home school their children, allowing a much more normal schedule for the entire family. As a result, the children could begin their day around 7:00 A.M. and be finished with all school, homework and practice by late afternoon, still giving the Brown siblings "time to be kids."

In spite of the close proximity of ages, the five siblings get along well and have been able to avoid any competition or rivalry. According to their parents, the siblings became each others' best friends, and the peer pressure among them became a positive musical glue that helped bond the family. At this point, all the siblings are working toward professional careers as concert pianists. Desirae and Deondra hope to play professionally as duo pianists after completing their education. Gregory, Melody and Ryan would like to pursue solo careers. In addition, the Brown family hopes to establish a summer music festival in one of Utah's ski resorts, providing Juilliard-quality instruction to talented students from around the country. As a special feature of the festival, the family is hoping to arrange for private donors to sponsor several gifted inner-city students to attend on full scholarship.

How does one explain this incredible phenomenon of the Brown siblings? Each is following his or her passion for playing the piano and is deeply committed to developing his or her art. While their talents are, no doubt, God-given, this family has sought to develop that talent to its fullest potential. The incredible support and sacrifice of their parents have provided encouragement and motivation. However, Keith and Lisa strongly believe that schedule consistency, persistence and a lot of hard work starting at an early age have contributed the most to each child's success. Keith explains, "As parents, we felt that our biggest responsibility was to guide and motivate our five through those transitional early teen years and continue that participative influence through the 'growing pains' to becoming satisfied adults. It is often easier to give up or back out of our parental responsibilities because of conflict or complacency. It is not always easy, but we agree with the experts that the most essential time for parental involvement and influence is from adolescence through young adulthood. We have also found that sometime between the ages 12 and 16, each one of our kids had to decide for themselves if they really wanted to continue with music. A parent's necessary encouragement to excel in music, sports or even academics can only go on for so long. Eventually, the child must decide for him or herself, 'Do I really want this for me?' We feel very blessed and fortunate that all five of our kids miraculously managed to survive that stage of acquiring self-motivation, and we are encouraged by their continued perseverance in becoming meaningful human beings'. Words can't express how excited we are as parents to have our children happy, balanced, well adjusted and working hard at what they love while attending one of the top schools of its kind in the world!"