"'They're all very talented and very cohesive musically,' says Max Hobart, conductor of the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra. 'It stems from the fact that they're such a well-defined family.'"

"Michael Charness, 48, a neurologist with keyboard talent, and Deborah Charness, 45, who teaches flute, began as a duo."

"Says composer Howard Frazin, who has written the concerto the family will premiere next week, 'Michael represents what unfortunately has been lost in this society, the very fine amateur musician who takes music very seriously at levels that rub up against what would be professional.'"

"'Michael doesn't sleep much,' Deborah Charness says."

"A specialist in neurology, Michael has a laboratory funded by the National Institutes of Health at the Veterans Administration Hospital in West Roxbury; he conducts research on how alcohol affects the brain."

"He still finds time to practice daily with each child, separately."

"Describing the piece he has written for the Charness family, Frazin says, 'The orchestra represents the world, sort of chaotic and uncertain. Deborah, the flute, attempts to shout it down and fails; the world overwhelms.' Then the children come in with solo parts, Jenny's 'optimistic, Daniel's sort of brooding, Sarah's dramatic. At the end the orchestra is quelled, transformed, gentler.'"

"Sarah is a freshman [in high school]. She has gymnastics trophies in her bedroom, but 'I'm into dance now.' And she's a dedicated Red Sox fan."

"Daniel, a sixth-grader ..., declares 'I'm lazy.' But it turns out he loves hockey, where he is goalie, and baseball - he's a pitcher. And, oh, yes, he is taking flying lessons, paying for them with money he has earned from the family music gigs."

"Jenny, a fourth-grader ..., describes herself as 'a big soccer player in BAYS [Boston Area Youth Soccer].' She likes to play midfield."

"Deborah Charness grew up in Cambridge, started studying piano at the age of 6 and switched to flute at 10. 'I wanted a shiny instrument,' she says. In addition, Dorio Anthony Dwyer, then principal flutist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the only woman in the BSO at the time, was a role model. Charness went to Sarah Lawrence College and progressed to Paris, where she studied for six years with the renowned flutist Jean Pierre Rampal."

"Sarah figures the quintet will only last another three years, until she goes to college. Right now, 'Sarah is the glue that holds us together,' her mother says."

"'But,' her father adds, 'by the time Sarah leaves, Jenny will be very good and we'll be a quartet again.'"