September of the year 1999: the audition results for the prestigious Swarthmore College String Quartet just had gotten published. The Quartet - the only official way of playing chamber music at the college at that time - guaranteed full funding for group coachings as well as individual lessons for all members as well as optional concert tours during the summer; this was great news for the four people who found their names on the list of the 1999-2000 quartet members, but not so great for the other five people who didn't. Peeved at the lack of alternatives for playing chamber music, the five Quartet rejects decided to form their own group that was to be "cool" and "kick the college quartet's ass." Given that there were five players, that group was to be a quintet. The members quickly realized that the demands of being full time students at Swarthmore made finding rehearsal time rather difficult. In the end the only time possible for all five members to meet for rehearsals (and coachings!) was late at night; thus was born the Midnight Quintett, with Lisa Huang '02 and Lisa Ladewski '02 on violins, Nori Heikkinen '03 on viola, Sarah Marsh '00 on piano (she auditioned for the quartet on violin, which she was also very adept at), and moi on cello. And yes, Quintett with two t's as in the german word, my contribution to the title and one of our little ways of being "cooler" than the Quartet >:).

Over the years, Lisa Huang, Nori, and I have stayed together as part of the Midnight Quintett. Lisa even came back to campus after she graduated in 2002 to play with us during my senior year! Here's what we've been through together over the years:

A most unusual and interesting experience was our project during my second semester senior year, where we performed Bruno Walter's piano quintet in F# minor. It's an unpublished piece; we played from copies of the original, handwritten parts, after Nori heard it at a concert in Vienna and we obtained from the Akademie fuer Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna.

Sadly, the Midnight Quintett no longer exists at Swarthmore. I suppose when you have all seniors (or post-seniors) in your group in your last year, that's what you should expect. But, the memories will be there, to be cherished forever...(everybody: AWWWWWWWWW!)