Catch the rising stars. (Rising Stars).

For the second consecutive year, MTNA will showcase young artists in one of its conference concerts. These artists are the result of dedication, hard work and fine teaching, Ann Milliman Gipson introduces Juilliard's Five Browns, pianists, and Neal Boyd, lyric tenor.

Juilliard's Five Browns

Many piano students dream of studying at the Juilliard School, and although many talented pianists practice with diligence and determination, only a few students are accepted into the prestigious school each year. It is no wonder that when all five Brown siblings of Alpine, Utah, were accepted to study at Juilliard, the family became an instant phenomenon and are quickly becoming a familiar name throughout the country.

Although Keith and Lisa Brown did not set out to raise five concert pianists, they did want to give their children a background in music and expose them to the joy of music through the piano. The added benefits of developing concentration and the ability to stick with something were important factors when the children were young. They had no idea that all five children would be drawn to the piano as a musical vehicle for expression. Even when given the opportunity to learn the violin, flute and guitar, all five children instead chose to continue piano study.

All the Brown siblings began their formal piano training at age 3 in Houston, Texas, under Russian immigrant and Moscow Conservatory piano professor Yelena Kurinets. When the family moved to Utah in 1991, their piano studies continued with Irene Peery. In 1997, at Keith's encouragement, eighteen-year-old Desirae and seventeen-year-old Deondra auditioned at Juilliard along with five other conservatories, hoping one school would accept the two girls together. To the family's astonishment, all six schools offered both girls large scholarships. Desirae and Deondra, now twenty-three and twenty-two years old respectively, are on scholarship in Juilliard's master's program and have studied under Yoheved Kaplinsky since 1997. As a sister duo, they began playing at the young ages of 5 and 4 and now study with Juilliard faculty ensemble specialists Jonathan Feldman and Margo Garrett. In 1998, when Gregory, Melody and Ryan joined their sisters at Juilliard, the entire family, along with their five grand pianos, moved to New York City. Gregory, 19, and Melody, now 18, also study with Kaplinsky on scholarship. Although the family moved back to Utah a year and half ago, Ryan, 16, continues to study with Kaplinsky in the Juilliard pre-college division, flying from Utah to New York City every Friday night to attend his Juilliard classes on Saturday.

With four siblings attending Juilliard's college division simultaneously, this unique feature in the school's prestigious history caught the interest of both the New York Times and The London Sunday Telegraph, which ran feature stories about the family. Since that time, the media exposure and performance opportunities have been numerous. The family's story was featured on 60 Minutes II, which first aired October 31, 2001. The family allowed 60 Minutes to tape their home and school life with performances over a five-month period. CBS re-aired the original 60 Minutes II program December 26, 2001, and again for a third time in July 2002. People Magazine featured an interview and photographs of the Brown family in an article published February 18, 2002, to correspond with the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. On February 22, 2002, at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, the Brown family performed in concert as part of the 2002 Winter Olympic Special Events. The day before the concert, the siblings were featured in a televised segment on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

All the Brown siblings have soloed with various symphonies, and collectively, the Brown children have had thirteen solo appearances with the Utah Symphony. Most recently, all five siblings appeared in concert with the Chicago Sinfonietta. Desirae and Deondra performed Poulenc's Duo Piano Concerto, previously performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra on Valentine's Day 2001, and Gregory, Melody and Ryan performed the Mozart Triple Concerto.

The musical success enjoyed by the Brown siblings is evidence to the years of practice and dedicated piano study but also serves as a tribute to parents Keith and Lisa for providing emotional, musical and financial support. While the financial burdens have at times been great, dad Keith has no regrets about the sacrifices that have been made to benefit the piano study of his children. One of the most significant expenses any musician incurs is the purchase of an instrument. With five children studying piano, the need for more pianos also grew over time, and five grand pianos became a part of the Brown home.

The children's mother, Lisa, an accomplished lyric soprano with a degree in vocal music, provided a musically nurturing environment for the siblings to study piano. In fact, after observing piano lessons, Lisa would sit with each child for about an hour and a half, totaling seven to eight hours per day, helping them to understand, practice and prepare for their weekly lessons. This unique aspect of the siblings' musical study no doubt played a significant factor in their rapid progress.

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!"

Neal Boyd

While many musicians dream of a Carnegie Hall recital, at the tender age of 27, one young singer enjoys reliving the experience. Although Neal Boyd, lyric tenor, still marvels at how a young man from Sikeston, Missouri, could find his way to Carnegie Hall, his March 24, 2001, appearance in that famed venue will most likely be the first of many recital appearances awaiting this emerging artist.

As a youth growing up in Sikeston, Neal had a wide variety of interests in addition to music. He was an avid sports enthusiast playing football and baseball, and was selected as an all-star baseball player during his junior high and senior high school years. Writing poetry and short stories was and remains a passion Neal enjoys. He also has an interest in politics and public service, serving as president of his high school and later being on the student senate of the first college he attended. He contributes his interest in music and politics to the fact that he feels comfortable on stage in front of an audience. His lack of stage fright is combined with an equal desire to inspire audiences, either through a motivating speech or a stirring song.

Musical influences came from a variety of sources. Although he grew up in a single-parent home with his mother, both parents were singers. She would play records by the Beatles and John Lennon, and Neal also listened to Lionel Richey, James Taylor and Motown groups. Growing up in the boot hill of Missouri, country music was a part of his musical influence. Even today, although he spends considerable time singing operatic arias and musical theater numbers, one might just as easily catch him singing an Alan Jackson song. He admits that while "you can take the boy out of the country, you can't take the country out of the boy"--he loves listening to and singing country music.

In junior high school, his choir teacher suggested Neal join the choir as a way to nurture his singing ability and hopefully draw his interest away from football. A friend in his school choir owned a recording of the Three Tenors Greatest Hits. Driving around town after school, Neal and his friends would listen and attempt to emulate the great singers. As a result, Neal's perception of great music and singing was kindled and became a strong influence leading him toward classical music and the desire to sing these tenor arias. Early successes in junior and senior high district contests served as motivators to continue studying music in college. His mother was a big inspiration as well, encouraging him to set no limitations on himself while pursuing his vocal studies.

After high school, Neal entered Southeast Missouri State University to pursue a music degree and studied voice with Christopher Goeke. Neal's interest in politics and public service created doubts about music study, and he decided to change his major to speech and communications. While he hadn't lost his love for music, Neal's decision to change majors was due to his overwhelming desire to do something in politics.

To nurture that political passion, he became an intern at the State Capitol in Jefferson City, Missouri, serving as a legal aid to Representative Paula Carter. While writing a policy speech, he heard a visiting high school choir sing "Shenandoah," a song he remembered singing in the junior high choir. He was so moved by the singing, Neal decided he had to pursue the music degree after all.

Inspired by the progress of a friend who was studying voice with Ann Harrell at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU), Neal began a music degree at MU also studying with Harrell. During this time, he not only saw his range increase, but saw great progress in her other students as well. The environment was encouraging and motivating.

About a year later, Harrell encouraged Neal to enter the MTNA Collegiate Artist Voice Competition. Since he sometimes worked about thirty hours a week delivering pizzas to pay the bills, financial concerns almost kept him from entering the competition. But he did enter, and to his surprise won the state and division level competitions. In March 2000, he won the MTNA Collegiate Artist Voice Competition at the national conference in Minneapolis.

As a way to showcase Neal's success and highlight the vocal talent at his school, MU sponsored a recital at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall featuring Neal. He acknowledges that while those four days in New York were the most stressful he had ever experienced in his life, he knew it was also the "beginning of something great." He thoroughly enjoyed the performance, singing a flawless recital, and he was thrilled to have the opportunity to make both his mother and the school proud of his accomplishments.

In May 2001, Neal graduated from MU with a bachelor of arts in music and simultaneously graduated from Southeast Missouri State University with a bachelor of arts in speech communications and a minor in both political science and music. After graduation, Neal moved back home to Sikeston. Although he had been accepted into the graduate programs at Eastman and Yale, Neal believed he needed to take some time to reflect on his future and earn some money. After applying for a music teaching position in the Sikeston Public School system, Neal became the assistant choir director at the high school and taught music appreciation at the middle school. To supplement his income, he taught private voice lessons in his home and sang in a church choir.

As a result of this year of teaching, Neal gained a new appreciation for his teachers. He acknowledges that teachers' efforts usually are not rewarded. He credits his choir director for getting him into music in the first place, but deeply appreciates all the teachers who helped nurture his love for music, keeping him focused in spite of his other interests and fostering his dreams of becoming a great singer.

After a year away from his own musical studies, he was ready to return to school. In August 2002, Neal moved to Boston to enter the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) and currently studies voice with Mark Saint-Laurent, a member of the ' NEC voice faculty. In these graduate studies, Neal enjoys the diversity of new ideas and the freedom and time to think and reflect about music, a commodity not always available in any undergraduate program. Since NEC has enjoyed the notoriety of several famous graduates, including Leonard Bernstein, Neal says it is exciting to be a part of that caliber of talent. He and his friends wonder who will be the next great musician to come from the school.

With plans to graduate in May 2005, Neal intends to pursue a music theater or opera career. As for his political aspirations, Neal says he hasn't lost his political drive, but he just has an escape from it. In fact, his goal still is to be the governor of Missouri one day. While he says he is lucky to have won one national contest, he knows how difficult it is to have a music career and is leaving his musical options open. Singing first became something he could call his own, but he now realizes that singing is a gift he can give back to people. He readily admits he is a student of all music, including those pop and country influences he grew up with in Sikeston, and wants to sing as "long as he can do the music justice."

Catch the "Rising Stars" concert Saturday, March 15, 8:00 P.M., in Abravanel Hall during the 2003 MTNA National Conference.

Ann Milliman Gipson has held faculty positions at Oklahoma Baptist University Delta State University and the University of Kentucky teaching applied piano, class piano and piano pedagogy. She is immediate past president of the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association and has been appointed to serve as the 2004-2005 MTNA National Conference Program Chair.