"The bell-like clangs are emanating from Michael Charness, associate chief of neurology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, standing at the foot of the stairs virgorously striking a triangle. This playful summons means family time, which in this case means rehearsal time and serious bonding over the likes of Bach and Vivaldi. The post-dinner hours are when Michael, his wife, Deborah, and their three children transform themselves from suburban Newton family into the Charness Family Quintet, an ensemble that performs up to 30 concerts a year."

"Despite the chorus of halfhearted groans from upstairs that meets Michael's noisy summons to rehearsal, the Charness children are committed to the hard work of musical lives, because they love to perform."

"Confidence, self-discipline, organization, dedication, focus. The Charnesses believe these qualities are assimilated during the serious study of any musical instrument."

"'When you try to bring something to a very high standard, it gives you a sense of how hard you have to work to do it, and I think that generalizes to a lot of different things [in life],' Michael says. 'I think that what the kids have accomplished at a pretty young age is to become really good at something and to understand what it takes to be good at something.'"

"The Charnesses are careful not to push too hard. 'We make sure that we always check with the kids before accepting a concert, and if they don't want to do it, they don't have to,' Deborah says."

"For the parents, the quintet has been not only a way to keep the family connected in a meaningful manner but a vehicle for their own musical needs."

"'Some days everybody's laughing,' Michael says. 'Other days nobody really wants to do it. But there's a rehearsal every day, and usually it works.'"

These excerpts are from a story that appeared on page M05 of The Boston Globe on April 1, 2001.