A Brown Birthday

I don't know why I didn't do this before, so I'll do it now! Tell you about the 5 Browns, that is. Mrs. Wells got us into a free recital at Steinway Hall a couple weeks ago and we all went. It was cool because the venue was very small and we were right up there next to them. They were signing posters and stuff afterward and Logan wanted to do that but the posters were gone by the time we got to them. So we got a copy of their new album for Logan and he had it autographed! He was jazzed about that. Then two days later I went to their concert at the Meyerson because DL had gotten tickets for my birthday (he got me their CD too). It was awesome. The first half was stuff with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The DSO played an overture, then the three younger Browns played a Mozart concerto which was okay, then the two older Browns did a Poulenc concerto that I liked better. They were both very long. The second half of the concert was just piano stuff, all from their new CD, and they played like all my favorites! 3 of the pieces were all together and the boys did a duet and the girls did a trio. And Gregory played a short Jerry Lee Lewis type thing that wasn't on the program. It was very entertaining. During the concertos I was thinking, "Wow, they must've only had a couple days to put these together with the DSO because they got to Dallas Sunday night I think and 3 of them were recovering from being sick the day before, and they were at Steinway Hall on Monday night." Well, during their question-and-answer segment someone in the audience asked that and they said they had just met with the orchestra that afternoon! I thought that was pretty amazing. I was a little bummed about missing a way fun game night at mutual but afterward I was totally glad I went. And I ran into Andrew Smith and his girls.

In related news, Logan is now officially a Rhapsody in Blue addict as it reigns my iTunes Most Played list with 15 plays in the last week or so. I have to say I love it too. It's one of three Dr. Ku five-piano arrangements written by Jeffrey Shumway, piano professor at BYU (those are also the three they played at the concert). The other two are The Firebird and a Copland/Dvorak medley.

In other news, last night Mom and I went to Flower Mound HS for the LEF awards thing. I was hoping to meet my endower, Mrs. Elmo Brown, but she wasn't there (sorry, Molly).

Wendy said she was confused, so I guess I better tell you who the 5 Browns are. Sorry. :) They're LDS Juilliard-trained pianist siblings from Utah. (How many more adjectives could I have crammed in there?) The oldest two, Desirae, 27, and Deondra, 25, are graduated and married. The next two, Gregory, 23, and Melody, 22, are about to graduate--assuming they can pass with all the time they've missed. Ryan, 20, is the youngest. They were all born in Houston and moved to Utah when Desirae was ten. They all started piano lessons at age three. They started playing together and having music arranged for five pianos maybe a year ago?? Something like that. They have ten pianos in their Utah house, five together in the basement, loaned to them by Steinway, and five upstairs, each in a different room for their individual practicing--they're all Steinway grands. Can you imagine?? They practice about six hours a day, at least in the summer when they're all together and they can practice the five-piano music. But when they're on a crazy traveling schedule like they have been lately, they obviously can't do that much because they'll fly somewhere and play a concert that night or whatever. They released their first album, The 5 Browns, last year, and their second, No Boundaries, 3 weeks ago. They're on tour right now. They've done a lot of TV appearances and interviews lately to promote their new CD, including the Martha Stewart Show, which they played on three weeks ago. I didn't see it but Mom did. After they played Martha gave them tickets to see Coldplay, their favorite band and they flipped out. Gregory said it was one of the coolest concerts he's ever been to. Anyway, I'm not talking about Coldplay. I don't know where they went right after Dallas but they played at a General Mills convention in Phoenix on Tuesday (don't ask me why). Then the younger three went back to New York and the older two went home to Utah, where they played at the governor's mansion Wednesday night, along with Desirae's husband, who's a violinist. At the same time, Melody was playing her graduation recital in NY. They're headed to South Carolina next. The Browns are only six and a half years apart. They're cute, they're fun, they like each other, they love playing together, they have great clothes, they like to keep their concerts pretty casual and they're trying to reach young audiences and get them interested in classical music. That's all I know about them (some of it from reading their blog). As you can tell, I became an instant semi-fanatic after hearing them play because I didn't know anything about them before. :)

Logan's confused

In this episode of Laughing with Logan, our hero gets temporarily flummoxed (maybe the record heat we're having here is getting to him).

This morning when we were eating breakfast, he was talking about the 6th grade orientation thing he went to last summer. The teacher he was assigned to, Mr. Hall, has had all or most of us in his 7th grade science class. Logan said as soon as Mr. Hall saw his nametag he said, "Are you Kaci White's sister?" I said, "He said that?" And Logan said yes. At first I thought Logan said that on purpose to be funny or something. And I said, "No, really, are you sure that's what he said?" And Logan looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Yes! That's what he said!" So then I realized he didn't know what he was saying and I decided I'd see how long it took him to figure it out. I said, "So he said 'Are you Kaci White's sister?'"one word at a time. By this time Logan was getting frustrated. He assured me that's what he had said, but I told him I didn't think he was sure. Well then he really thought I'd lost 'em good. I said, "Logan, you're not Kaci White's sister." Then he was completely bewildered and looked at me like I was an alien or something. After thinking hard for a few seconds I saw the lightbulb go on. He smiled and said, "I'm Kaci Wickman's sister!" This was so not what I expected him to say that I busted out laughing. Logan still didn't get it. I told him he was Kaci's brother. Finally he realized and started laughing... and then called me a biffer. It actually went on longer than it does in this paragraph... it was so funny. I wish I had it on video.

Capoeira night

Last night I went to a capoeira class in Dallas. Capoeira (cahp-oh-aid-ah) is a Brazilian martial art that combines fighting, music, and dancing and originated from African slaves in Brazil. I went with my YW 1st counselor and her husband, who know it pretty well. While she was at BYU, Sister Kemp trained with an international group called CapuraGinga and the guy who's teaching this class, so she was very excited when he and his wife moved to Dallas and he decided to teach capoeira. After Sis. Kemp got married they convinced her husband to start doing it. The teacher and his wife are amazing. Everyone in a capoeira group gets a Portuguese nickname, and his is Furacao. It means hurricane, and he is one, let me tell ya. After the class he showed us a few sweet kicks, including a 720-degree one and one that almost hit the ceiling fan. I also mastered tambourine playing. It was a fun night! These are pictures of the group CapuraGinga playing in the roda (ring). Furacao is the guy in the second picture playing the stick thing and I think that's him flipping in the last picture. Recognize the building behind him? Yep, it's the Salt Lake temple.

My first scholarship!!

Yay! I got $500 from Mrs. Elmo Brown and the LISD Education Foundation. Thhhanks, Mrs. Elmo!