If you’ve never seen the Singing Angels perform, you’ve denied yourself a major treat. These youngsters, possessed of gorgeous singing voices and smiling, happy, faces, aged 7 through 18 or so, clearly love music, love singing and performing, and will restore your faith in the younger generation. All you have to do is sit back, listen—and enjoy.
Their repertoire includes a bit of everything from across the musical spectrum. They do a bit of dancing in place, and on occasion send 5 of 6 more experienced dancers out front for a bit of soft shoe or jazzy footwork. Musical selections range from the upbeat We’ve Got a Lot of Living to Do to an a capella version of the Allegro from Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and from the patriotic God Bless America (in a special barbershop quartet style) to the religious Ave Maria and the Hallelujah Chorus. The latter was their contribution to a special appearance before Pope Benedikt XVI at the Vatican in late June of this year.
In between and around the above-mentioned numbers, they presented solos by one of the graduating seniors this year, a very talented young woman, Ashley by name, who will be going to Baldwin Wallace this fall. With a confident demeanor, she sang How are Things in Glockamorra in a true, clear soprano in which every word was distinguishable. She was followed by a new-comer, seven-year-old Luke, who charmed everyone with his version of Edelweiss.
Former members Charles Eversole has become the Performing Chorus Music Director, while Angie Perrine is his assistant. James J. Balaguer, Volunteer Director of Barbershop Music conducted the songs in that style. There were also un-named keyboard accompanists.
Their next to final piece was an introduction to the performers that would follow: Irving Berlin’s I Love A Piano. It’s totally impressive to see five gorgeous, shiny concert grand pianos on one stage, and the music that was presented made it seem as though this should become a performing standard.
The five Brown siblings, ranging in age from 21 to 28, are individually talented, and nearly all of them get an individual moment in the spotlight. They’ve only been performing as a quintet for a couple of years now, but it’s so natural sounding one could think they’d been doing it for decades! They play so precisely together, the sound greatly resembles one muscular pianist—one with perhaps fifty fingers rather than the ordinary ten!
Sisters Desirae, Deondra and Melanie join with brothers Greg and Ryan for five-piano renditions of Gershwin’s jazzy Rhapsody in Blue; the nearly stark Shaker hymn Simple Gifts from Appalachian Spring of Aaron Copland combined with the Going Home theme from Dvorak's Ninth Symphony; Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King, and the brilliant and colorful The Firebird by Stravinsky.
The pianos are placed in a semi-circle, with the musicians facing each other or the audience. By watching their heads, you follow the melody around from one to the other. It would be really neat to have mirrors overhead so you could see their hands and fingers, as well. A black curtain at the rear of the stage reflected colored lights during some of the pieces, which was the only special stage treatment, although the colors changed according to the work being performed.
All-time favorite Malagueña by Lecuona was dashingly played by Greg and Ryan, after which Melanie performed a portion of Gargoyles by Lowell Liebermann.
Youngest brother Ryan—sans jacket—did one movement of a suite by Ginastera--Danzas argentinas. Greg did the honors in the knuckle-buster of the evening – the Kernis tribute to Jerry Lee Lewis titled Superstar Etude. Great Balls of Fire! You really expected the piano to start spitting sparks in this one, as Greg used elbows and arms along with his talented fingers.
To give the pianos a bit of a rest, at this point, the five musicians came on stage to answer questions and introduce themselves in a very casual and down-to-earth manner. They talked about beginning piano lessons at the age of three (‘a coming of age’ for each of them); competitiveness (and the lack of it between themselves), then going to Juilliard for nine years! As Steinway artists, they now have ten pianos in the house—five in separate rooms, and five in one huge room so they can practice together. They have been using various arrangers to come up with their unique performing versions, but are now getting ready to commission works.
Back to music, again, all the sisters put themselves and their six hands at one piano for Rachmaninoff's charming Valse and Romance. Desirae and Deondra then gave us a scintillating version of the two-piano duo by Lutosławski--his Variations on a Theme of Paganini.
Greg closed out the solo renditions with another American classic, Full Stride Ahead a rag by Novacek.
Stravinsky’s Firebird heralded the ending of the concert. By this time, it was quite dark and the nighttime creatures—frogs, crickets, cicadas and who knows what else?—erupted, creating a musical-sounding jungle accompaniment to the five pianos. Enthusiastic applause prompted an encore—Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky-Korsakov. Perhaps recognizing the tribute to one of their own, the accompanists remained silent during this rendition, allowing the pianos to have the glory all to themselves. It was richly deserved, indeed!
For concert updates of the Singing Angels, go to http://www.singingangels.org/ and for info about the 5 Browns, go to http://www.the5browns.com
From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz artswriterATadelphia.net (:divend:)