About Tandy
T A N D Y R E U S S N E R, D M A, received her Bachelor's and Doctorate of Organ Performance degrees from the University of Kansas, and a Masters of Music degree (Organ) from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. A Fulbright Scholar to West Germany in 1986/87, Tandy has also won two national organ competitions -- the 1989 Music Teacher's National Association Organ Competition, and the 1991 Chicago Women's National Organ Competition. Besides performing full-length concerts throughout the region and around the world, Tandy Reussner has served several local churches as organist/music director and currently is the organist/choral accompanist at First United Methodist Church in Lawrence, Kansas, home to the largest pipe organ in the state (a Reuter instrument with over 7000 pipes).
Each Christmas season, Tandy Reussner and her family provide a free organ concert to the Lawrence community to benefit local charities and organizations. Area musicians join Tandy for this "organ-plus" Christmas concert, playing to a full house every year. Tens of thousands of dollars have been raised for Family Promise of Douglas County, Lawrence Memorial Hospital Endowment Association Survivors' Funds, the Lawrence Children’s Choir, the local High School Choral programs, and other worthy non-profit organizations in the area. For her efforts, Tandy was awarded the Elizabeth Watkins Community Caring Award in 2016.
Tandy’s concert series, entitled “Pulling Out All The Stops” is designed to raise awareness of the versatility of the pipe organ, build community, and raise funds for local charitable organizations. During the inaugural series of 2022-2023, audiences at the four concerts donated over $10,000 to four beneficiaries. Tandy and her non-profit organization, SDG Productions, introduced different mediums and instrumentation with the pipe organ - including a performance of Nessun Dorma with organ and electric guitar, and a performance with members of the University of Kansas Marching Band. In July of 2023, she helped bring a digital organ to the Lied Center of Kansas in order to accommodate a larger audience for a concert with the Lawrence City Band.
Besides performing and writing organ music and choral pieces, Tandy has published a biography of one of her organ mentors and has written several devotionals, two in-depth Bible Studies and is working on a third. Tandy also serves as Resources Development Chair on the Lawrence Children’s Choir Board of Directors.
In her spare time, Tandy Reussner enjoys spending time with her husband, Lee, and daughters, Liesel (son-in-law Sean, and new granddaughter Adeleinn), and Hannah (and son-in-law Lucas); watching sports; painting and chalking (rooms, blackboards, and canvases!); traveling; sewing; journaling; reading; studying history; co-hosting a citywide weekly women's Bible Study; and reading recipes and then cooking them.