Serendipity; the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. For juniors Audrey Hwang and Zoë Gunderson, their meeting was unexpected, and in turn according to Haley Hwang, Audrey’s mother, led to a unique musical collaboration. According to Haley, the two formed a band entitled Serendipity after they were asked to perform at the Glenview Rock House’s one-year anniversary, and since then have performed at various community events.

“The [Rock House] had a one-year anniversary, so they had all their students play,” Audrey said. “We did something together and ever since then, [The Rock House] has been telling us about any time there was a new gig that they really wanted us to perform in.”

Audrey had been teaching herself until about six months ago when she found the Rock House. According to Audrey, she had tried to play other instruments in the past, but so far the ukulele has been one of her favorites.

“I like how [the ukulele] is very simplistic,” Audrey  said. “I tried playing the guitar and I couldn’t. I just figured [the] ukulele has four strings and I have four fingers so how hard can it be. I really like how simple and light it is, and it sounds very relaxing to me.”

Serendipity performs at different locations across the North Shore area, according to Gunderson. The girls have performed at events such as St. Joseph’s Oktoberfest in Wilmette, as well as monthly performances at the nursing home and rehabilitation center, Glenview Terrace.

“[Glenview Terrace] is really fun; that one is probably our favorite,” Gunderson said. “We [got] to play older songs and the people there really [enjoyed] hearing us play. We [also] get to meet new people every month.”

According to Gunderson, part of Serendipity’s success is due to its strong dynamic. Gunderson explained that she and Audrey share a similar taste in music, which is helpful when deciding which pieces to perform. Similarly, Audrey says the ukulele and bass balance each other out as well.

“I think that our instruments, just the sounds, balance each other because the ukulele is very light and simple, and the bass is very deep,” Audrey said. “[The bass] is supposed to be a backbone sound, almost to keep the beat. In regards to [both] our personality and our instruments, we balance each other out.”

Junior Daisy Taylor says she really enjoys listening to Serendipity perform because of the relaxing atmosphere. Taylor says she usually attends Serendipity’s performances at the Rock House and enjoys being watch the performance.

“It’s really chill,” Taylor says. “I always get a smoothie, and I just sit and listen to the music. Some people will be on their phones reading and just listening, but I always watch. It’s really interesting.”

According to Gunderson, Serendipity plays several types of music during their performances. Gunderson says that they often play Indie music because of the combination of Hwang’s ukulele and her bass. Gunderson also added that most of the songs they choose are not very popular.

“We feel that it is more fun if we can introduce something [new] then just have [the song] be really good,” Gunderson said.

Audrey says that Serendipity tries to choose songs they feel they could properly represent despite their limitations.

“For one of our gigs, we had the song ‘Daisy’ by Zedd which is electronic dance music,”  Gunderson said. “We slowed it down and added bass and ukulele, which was a really cool combination. Not a lot of bands do that with ukulele and bass because they are polar opposites, […] but the contrast [sounded] really cool.”

While both Audrey and Gunderson enjoy playing and performing music, neither one wishes to pursue it as a career.

“Right now it’s been basically just for fun,” Audrey said. “To share what we do with other people, it’s been a lot of fun, but there’s not really a huge plan. It’s just a nice fun thing to do together.”

In the future, Gunderson says while continuing to perform around Glenview, Serendipity may try out for South’s Variety Show. Gunderson also says that she and Audrey may begin writing their own songs.

“We’ve talked about writing songs in the future, and I’m pretty excited about that,” Gunderson said. “Then hopefully we’ll just start to incorporate those into our sets so we get some original music in with some covers.”