Brandi Carlile

The Story

Born in 1981, American singer Brandi Carlile grew up with the country music of her rural homeland. Even as a child, she was on stage with her mother. As a teenager, she increasingly turned to rock and later met twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth, with whom she formed a folk-rock band under her own name. Since then, the three musicians have formed an inseparable musical-family unit. (Phil Hanseroth married Brandi Carlile's sister.)

The band's greatest success was 'The Story', written by Phil Hanseroth. The song brought Brandi Carlile into the international charts in 2007. A decisive factor was that the song was also used as the soundtrack in the popular American television series 'Grey's Anatomy'. 'The Story' is a ballad with rich facets: it begins gently and emotionally and gradually increases into a hard rocking groove. The large musical range is also illustrated by the fact that Carlile's vocal melody spans two octaves.

Players of a wind orchestra can cover such a range of sounds more easily than a singer with their various instruments. Consequently, Martin Scharnagl chose this already classic international hit for his arrangement.