From the outset, they laid out a plan to preserve the friendship. They instructed their arrangers to make their arrangements challenging and equal, not emphasizing one person.

In recent years, the Brown children gave up their New York apartments and returned to Utah to facilitate the group's rehearsals. They practice in their parents' house, where there are five pianos in one basement room as well as single pianos in four rooms upstairs.

It's a family business. Lisa sorts through music to compile music to submit to arrangers for the 5 Browns to perform. Keith devotes himself full time to co-managing the group's concert and travel schedule.

They have managed their business around ever-changing personal lives. The three sisters of the group are married, and two of the couples share a house next door to their parents' home. All except Ryan have master's degrees. After completing Juilliard's pre-college program, Ryan was leery of the inevitable comparisons to his siblings and chose to attend Manhattan School of Music over Juilliard, ending a nine-year run of Browns enrolled at the famous conservatory. He dropped out a year short of his undergrad degree to pursue a professional career with his siblings. Greg is pursuing a doctorate in piano performance at the University of Utah.

"We've come to the realization that things will change through the years," Melody says. "We're going to want to start families. We'll constantly be re-evaluating schedules and making sure everyone is happy in the group."

Melody married two months before she had planned, simply because it was the only hole in the group's schedule. The wedding occurred two days after a concert and five days before the start of another tour.

"We've struggled our whole lives with trying to have balance," Melody says.

The five Browns are happy, charming, sweet-natured and remarkably poised, confident young people unspoiled by the attention and life on the road. When the five of them sat for a lengthy interview at their home, they began nearly every answer by identifying themselves — "This is Desirae ... " — mindful that the interviewer was just learning to place their names with faces.

"They were kind of embarrassed by the contract and the attention when they were at JulliardJuilliard," Keith says. "They were never the best at JulliardJuilliard. They've succeeded because they have something different."

"They have a certain charm, and it's reflected in their performances. When they're on stage, people connect with them."