It’s said that the family who plays together stays together. That’s true in the case of these three Lawrence families, who all share a common love — and gift — for music.

In honor of Mother’s Day, we’re celebrating local mothers with musical talents — and the kids who have followed in their footsteps.

Tandy Reussner and daughters Liesel and Hannah

Lawrence organist Tandy Reussner is pictured with her two daughters, Liesel, left, and Hannah, who are both singers, Wednesday, May 6, 2015 in their Lawrence home.

Just call them the von Reussners.

Comparisons to the von Trapp family of “The Sound of Music” fame have been so frequent over the years that Tandy Reussner, her husband and two daughters have embraced the nickname.

“We sing our prayers at every meal, we sing our bedtime prayers, we just sing everything,” says Liesel Reussner, 22. “I think music has been a really big bonding thing for our family.”

Even the Reussners’ orange tabby, Buddy, sometimes gets in on the action. The cat’s melodic meows echoed through their west Lawrence home earlier this week as mother and daughters reminisced about their musical upbringing.

“It was just something we did, and we didn’t really question it,” says Hannah, 18, during a brief pit stop at home between a physics test and soccer practice. “It seemed normal to us.”

Both girls eventually moved on to other instruments — Liesel on the oboe, Hannah on the trumpet — but started out on the piano with Tandy, a concert organist with a doctorate in organ performance, as their teacher. To create a division between the two relationships, Liesel and Hannah developed a special routine for each lesson.

“We would go out the back door of the house, ring the doorbell at the front door, and now Mom is Mrs. Reussner, our piano teacher,” recalls Liesel.

The trick worked like a charm for years.

“You were very polite and well-behaved,” Tandy tells her daughters, the pride evident in her voice.

Since 1996, Tandy has headlined her annual Organ Vespers holiday concert in Lawrence. Liesel and Hannah have been involved in the recital for most of their lives, often helping with the set list and singing duets accompanied by their mother.

With both girls graduating this month — Liesel with a bachelor’s in speech, language and hearing from Kansas University; Hannah from Free State High School and moving on to Central College in Pella, Iowa — Tandy says she isn’t sure what next year’s concert will look like.

“I’m doing it,” Hannah quickly assures her mother, batting away Tandy’s reminder that the concert will likely fall right before final exams.

“You think you are,” Tandy says with a laugh. “We’ll see.”

Jin-Kyung Lee and daughter Joo-Young Lee

Growing up, Joo-Young Lee would often hear her pianist mother say, “Music is like a vitamin.”

“It is for me, especially,” says Jin-Kyung, sitting alongside her 18-year-old daughter at their Lawrence dining table. “Sometimes music is healing.”

Pianist Jin-Kyung Lee is pictured with her 18-year-old daughter Joo-Young, a Lawrence High School senior and violinist, on Wednesday, May 6, 2015 in their Lawrence home.

Like taking daily vitamins, music has remained a constant in Joo-Young’s life since birth. Piano was the first instrument she studied as a young girl under her mother’s tutelage. At age 5, she began tagging along to her older sister’s violin lessons and decided she might try her hand at learning the instrument, too.

She’s stayed at it for 13 years now, and will probably continue playing on the side when she heads off this fall to Northwestern University, where she ultimately plans on studying medicine.

On Sunday, Jin-Kyung will accompany her daughter on stage at the Lawrence Community Orchestra’s Mother’s Day concert, slated for 4 p.m. at Lawrence Free State High School, 4700 Overland Drive.

“Just playing the violin, I think, has taught me a lot of things that are applicable in other parts of life, like focusing on small details,” says Joo-Young, a National Merit Scholar. “And perseverance.”

It’s a lesson she’s also learned from her mother, who emigrated from South Korea in the early 1990s to pursue graduate studies at Boston University. Jin-Kyung works as an accompanist (here in town for KU ballet classes, and at Topeka’s Hayden High School and Christ the King Catholic Church) and teaches piano from her home.

Behind her warm, welcoming smile (“she’s always taught me manners and to be nice to others,” Joo-Young says) is a tough steadfastness that has kept Jin-Kyung going despite some serious health issues.

After being diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer, Jin-Kyung underwent a lumpectomy this year, recently finished radiation therapy and has now moved onto hormone therapy.

Throughout the ordeal — she’s doing OK now, Jin-Kyung says — the mother of two has retained a sunny outlook, which she hopes she’s passed on to Joo-Young.

“I believe if someone stays positive, no matter what he or she is doing, they’ll be successful for life. She’s really good at academics and she’s a tremendous hard worker,” Jin-Kyung says of her daughter. “I just want her to be herself and stay positive.”

Cynthia Colwell Dunn and son Bryce Dunn

Even before receiving his first drum set for Christmas at age 9, Bryce Dunn was a percussionist.

“Everything is a percussion instrument to him,” says his mother, Cynthia Colwell Dunn, director of music therapy at KU. “Even just his body, my car, his little brother, objects around him.”

That innate rhythmic ability comes from both parents, says Bryce, whose father, Dwayne Dunn, also happens to be his choir director at Lawrence High School, where the 16-year-old sophomore serves as president of the concert choir and plays percussion in the band.

Cynthia Colwell Dunn, KU's director of music therapy, is pictured with her 16-year-old son, Bryce, an avid percussionist, in the front yard of their Lawrence home.

“Your nit-picking, detail-oriented stuff comes from me, I think,” Cynthia tells her son from across the living room of their west Lawrence home. “He’s very organized and systematic — he’s the most organized teenager I’ve ever seen. But other than that, he’s his dad.”

Those keen organizational skills come in handy for Bryce, who stays busy teaching martial arts and accompanying his mother on percussion in their church’s singing quartet. In all areas, Bryce commands the admiration and respect of his peers — and younger kids, who Cynthia says look up to the good-natured teenager.

“He works in the nursery at church, and it’s like he’s a little-kid magnet, especially the little boys,” she says. “It seems like this natural leadership that he exudes when he’s around kids.”

Though he’s just a sophomore, Bryce says he’s already thinking about the future. With both parents being teachers, it’s not unlikely that he might get into the family business someday.

He says his mother — who was born in Nova Scotia and ventured far from her home and family to attend graduate school at Florida State University — has inspired him over the years.

“She’s at the top of her profession, and obviously that takes a lot of leadership and skill,” Bryce says. “I’d say she’s a great leader.”