Press

Pianist Brown brings customary excellence, insight to a personal program for CMSLC “The wit and sense of pleasure in the music came through, not only in his playing but with his funny and self-deprecating introductions to the audience.” [Read More]
— George Grella, New York Classical Review

Bard Music Festival “Young artists excelled in all these concerts, not least the pianist Michael Stephen Brown, whose poised refinement made an early student piece by Smyth, her Sarabande in D minor, sound like a mature masterpiece.” [Read More]
— The New York Times

Pianist Michael Stephen Brown at Alice Tully Hall “Performer-composer Michael Stephen Brown is a bit of a New York archetype: a fairly good-looking guy with nice eyeglasses and slightly messed up hair. He’s like someone you might see pondering produce at Whole Foods. But actually, there’s nothing typical about him.” [Read More]
— August Cosentino

Beethoven-Haus Bonn Recital Debut: Brown Shines and Captivates “Brown is wide awake and loosened up his concert with eloquent and amusing presentations. He likes to put his fabulous pianistic skills at the service of unusual programmes, such as Mendelssohn's seldom performed Six Preludes and Fugues. Brown played captivatingly...his reading of Beethoven's Eroica Variations succeeded brilliantly, with a feeling for the typical defiant humour, with superior virtuosity. Brown wrote the right-hand solo Breakup Etude: a circus sound-bath of Debussy, satie and modern jazz. "What is it all for?" asks the pianist self-deprecatingly at the end. Well, definitely good for high-class entertainment.” [Read More]
— Von Mathias Nofze, General-Anzeiger

Album Review: Noctuelles, First Hand Records performance ***** | recording *****
"It’s a truism to declare that Ravel was a master of exquisite new sonorities, but how many pianists realise the luminosity and the quietest dynamics as well as Brown? Melodic fragments are always subtly highlighted; grouping the work in two pairs followed by a numinously majestic epilogue, the pianist makes ‘The Valley of the Bells’ a spellbinding highlight, resonating in mid-air… a treasurable diptych." [Read More]
— BBC Music Magazine "his technique is crystalline, dynamically fluid and deeply expressive" [Read More]
— Jean-Yves Duperron, Classical Music Sentinel "the whole CD is a real feast for the ears"
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— Rob Challinor, Music Web International "The account of Miroirs can certainly hold its own in what is now a crowded field." [Read More]
— Arcana.fm "Michael Stephen Brown takes the plunge into a dark tale, rediscovering in Medtner's diabolical dreaminess Ravel's desperate imaginations." [Read More]
— Artamag (Paris)

Mostly Mozart Debut Recital “…Mr. Brown began with a colorful account of Mendelssohn’s impetuous “Variations Sérieuses,” then played his own flinty yet playfully pointillist “Folk Variations.” Nodding to the orchestra’s earlier program, he ended his recital with a fearless performance of Beethoven’s mon-umental “Eroica” Variations.” [Read More]
— Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times

Mostly Mozart Recital “Brown played these variations with command. He showed a clear sense of structure, and he played with total confidence. Boldness. He was unhesitating in everything he did, as if there were no other way. This is a valuable quality in a musician. Brown struck me as a leader, as he played. I wonder whether he conducts, or will conduct, in addition to playing and composing.” [Read More]
— Jay Nordlinger, The New Criterion

Chamber Music Society opens season in Saratoga Springs with adventurous program “Pianist Michael Stephen Brown, who proved to be the glue that held together all the pieces performed, opened with Ravel’s “Jeux d’eau” (1901). Inspired by one of Versailles’ fountains, the work rip-ples and sparkles with sprays of notes in rainbows of color. Brown’s easy facility glistened with an elegance and grace.” [Read More]
— Geraldine Freedman, The Daily Gazette

Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto “The Heartland Festival Orchestra closed out its 10th season…featuring an amazing piano soloist Michael Stephen Brown. Brown's piece, Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B Flat Minor Op. 23, received two standing ovations, the first at the conclusion of the first movement, which seems to be a finale but isn’t. Artistic director/conductor David Commanday told the audience that happens often, then pressed on, so Brown received a second SO after the third and final movement. This is a fast, difficult piece, and Brown played it from memory, brilliantly.” [Read More]
— Elaine Hopkins, Peoria Story

Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety “Michael Stephen Brown gave a fresh, direct, and lively reading of the solo piano part that never grew over-inflated or threatened to bog the music down.” [Read More]
— Samuel Wigutow, Concerto Net

Dark rarities offer bright rewards in Chamber Music Society season finale “Brown’s keyboard work was especially idiomatic, bringing out the fantasia quality of the writ-ing. One would like to hear this excellent pianist tackle Schubert’s late sonatas sometime.” [Read More]
— Lawrence A. Johnson, Chicago Classical Review

CMS Opening Night “And Mr. Brown’s reading of Glinka’s variations on a Mozart theme was a highlight by the sheer force of his playing, his sound gently radiant.” [Read More]
— Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, The New York Times

Michael Stephen Brown's Piano Works: CD Review "with this quote: Framing the album’s American contributions come a gripping account of four of Mendelssohn’s six Preludes and Fugues, op. 35, and Beethoven’s Eroica Variations (his op. 35). Brown dispatches the Mendelssohn’s sometimes very knotty chromaticism with exceptional clarity and – always – a strong sense of the musical line. Thus, the fugues are anything but pedantic, pseudo-Bachian exercises: Brown’s account of the opening E-minor one, for instance, is packed with energy and drama, the chorale at its end not only perfectly balanced between the hands but, emotionally, truly cathartic. The concluding sixth fugue (in B-flat major) is a marvel of propulsion and snappy rhythmic activity. Brown also mines much beauty and drama out of the preludes." [Read More]
— Jonathan Blumhofer, The Arts Fuse

Michael Stephen Brown plays Shostakovich 1 with Grand Rapids Symphony "Brown, a past Rising Star of the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, returned to West Michigan to give a performance that was clean and precise but still with an undercurrent of passion just below the surface. A gifted pianist, Brown has substantial skills as a soloist. Lehninger led an exciting performance." [Read More]
— Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk, grsymphony.org

Own Brand "one of the most refined of all pianist-composers" [Read More]
— Benjamin Ivry, International Piano

Composer Pianist Michael Stephen Brown on Creating Musical Journeys "Pianist and composer Michael Stephen Brown is a storyteller. During a recent recital, he performed a polished program weaving together a web of fugues by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and Bernstein, as well as his own compositions, with a delivery that conveyed his love for Americana alongside the classical form. In fact, even his playing of classical pieces sounds a bit folksy. Certainly, his presentation managed to connect one piece to another, as an unfolding narrative, even though the separate pieces might have had little in common in terms of an actual storyline." [Read More]
— Catherine Yang, Epoch Times

Formidable Pianist in Chamber Works by Franck and Dvorak "Classical musicians face enormous expectations when they play a standard repertory work. Listeners have strong feelings about favorite pieces, even when they are open to fresh interpretive approaches...Franck’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in A [received] an ardent, bold performance by Mr. Müller-Schott and the formidable pianist Michael Stephen Brown...The program ended with Dvorak’s Piano Quartet in D (Op. 23), with the violist Paul Neubauer joining Mr. Sussmann, Mr. Müller-Schott and Mr. Brown. It was a lively, dynamic performance." [Read More]
— Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times