Be forewarned: The singing Jones family has heard enough cutesy references to The Sound of Music.

"People sometimes call us the Von Joneses," says Kirsten, rolling her eyes. No slight on Austria's Von Trapp family, but the Joneses of Denver are light years beyond Do Re Mi and Sixteen Going on Seventeen. Nearly all 15 family members are heavily involved in the lofty art of choral and operatic singing.

Loraine and Randolph "Casey" Jones and their children's families are serious about music. So serious, in fact, that potential spouses with tin ears are not encouraged to apply.

"Yes, we do hold auditions," notes Kirsten – only half-jokingly. "There's a family rule: If you're one of Casey's kids, you have to marry someone who sings." As the youngest of four Jones children, the unmarried Kirsten doesn't have any other choice.

Her sisters, Rebecca and Randa, both singers and members of Casey's highly regarded Colorado Choir, each married singers. Kirsten's brother Nathan, a singer, recently married Jill, a singer. Now along comes the new generation: Rebecca's and Randa's children.

Yes, they sing. All seven of them.

Are we starting to notice a pattern here?

Kirsten certainly has. She is currently dating a deep-voiced member of the Augustana Lutheran Church and Colorado Choirs (she also sings with both groups). Wedding plans aren't on the immediate horizon, but the family has already expressed approval: "We could use a second bass," she says with a laugh. Then her tone turns somber: "Music is so important to us. It's something we would want to share with our spouses for the rest of our lives."

Smiling a bemused smile over all of this, Loraine ponders what she and her husband started when they wed 41 years ago. "There was no intention of producing a dynasty," she insists during a family visit at Augustana Lutheran Church, base of Casey's chancel choir. "Early on, I thought that the piano was very important for the children. So, they all studied."

"And, of course, Casey and I sang a lot to them – in the car, at the dinner table, all the time."

Music has been impossible to avoid in the Jones household. Casey was always involved in choruses, teaching and conducting at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn. (where he headed 11 choirs) [misprint: he conducted two choirs at Concordia under the supervision of Paul J. Christiansen, and was Minister of Music at Trinity Lutheran Church where he led 11 choirs], and Adams State College in Alamosa, before founding the Colorado Choir in 1976. Loraine, meanwhile, played violin and – naturally – sang.

It's not surprising Loraine and Casey found each other through music.

"We were both attending Lutheran Bible Institute in Minneapolis," she recalls. "When I heard him sing, I poked my girlfriend and said, 'Pretty nice voice.'"

A slow, sly grincrosses Casey's wide, expressive face as he shares that memory with his wife. Though they grew up in different worlds – Erskine, Minn., she in Jamestown, N.Y. – Casey and Loraine seemed destined for each other.

"Loraine's mom was an organist, and so was my mom," he said. "And my father was a tenor, a very fine one. Of course, I sang as a boy. In those days, there were string bands all over the place with fiddles, stand-up basses and all. A lot of them needed a kid to stand in front and sing. That was me."

The elder Joneses look very comfortable with each other as they share memories or gaze with unconcealed pride at their grown-up children giggling over some anecdote.

Yet, even though singing serves as the spiritual glue in this close-knit family, Casey and Loraine represent two sides of a musical coin: She is calm, restrained, level-headed – reflecting her years as a registered nurse and a high school science teacher (she was named Colorado's Outstanding Biology Teacher in 1981); Casey, meanwhile, is all heart and emotion. Often during this informal gathering, his eyes well up with tears and his voice begins to quaver.

If music is the miraculous blending of science and soul, it's no wonder Loraine and Casey produced a quartet of singers. "You have to set a stage for your abilities," Casey explains. "You should first establish a personality – then you can marry those two qualities."

Though he wears his heart on his sleeve, Casey is nonetheless well-versed in the exact science of singing, showing a wide-ranging knowledge of technique and theory that has made him one of this country's most respected choral conductors.

As Randa, the second-eldest, points out, "I think we got our precision and warmth from both parents."

The four Jones kids also received a great deal of their formal training outside of the home. All studied with the late Ed Richmond at Adams State – with their father's blessings. "Usually voice teachers and choral directors don't get along well," says Casey. "But that wasn't the case here. Ed and I never had a conflict – I was a big fan of his."

Randa agrees. "The things we learned from Ed didn't contradict what we learned from Dad. They were a natural team." Other teachers worked with the young Joneses as well, among them the late Louis Cunningham – whom Casey called "a good finisher."

Gazing down at the floor, Casey modestly tosses in another influence: "I think I deserve some of the credit." Seated nearby, Randa and Nathan smile.

"We gained a love of music, and an understanding in our home," Randa says. "And we're still learning from Dad. We learn at every rehearsal."

Against all odds, Nathan managed to resist music as a boy. He grimaces as Randa describes the youthful four-part harmony sessions that served as a continual soundtrack for long vacation drives. "I didn't like it," he says of all that singing. Not until he turned 16, when his baritone emerged, did Nathan begin to take his voice seriously.

"I was always around college kids who sang," he recalls. The turning point came when he "tagged along" on an unforgettable 1973 tour of the Soviet Union.

A mention of that trip fills Casey with emotion, as he told of a concert in Minsk. A mere 10 minutes before the 4 p.m. curtain, the theater was still empty, he remembers. "The people there told me, 'Don't worry – it's fine.' Incredibly, by 4 o'clock . . . " Suddenly, his eyes swell up with tears and he is unable to continue. Placing a hand lovingly on her husband's knee, Loraine finishes the story: "By 4 o'clock the place was packed. It was remarkable."

"Being close to all that is something you never forget," Nathan says. Soon, his singing career began in earnest. "The best thing my voice has done is to get me a wife." Seated next to him, Jill smiles.

Nathan's comment seemed the appropriate place for Jill to tell the oft-told tale of how the pair met. The Joneses and Jill's family both owned vacation homes on Bad Medicine Lake in northern Minnesota.

A decade ago, Jill heard Nathan sing at a church service near the lake. "I was so taken by his voice that I asked if he would sing at my wedding one day. Little did I know . . . "

After the formalities of a courtship, the two were wed last summer – and true to his promise, Nathan gazed into his bride's eyes and sang One Hand, One Heart from West Side Story. Who says there are no more fairy tales?

Newlyweds Nathan and Jill are childless, of course. "We have two dogs, and neither of them sing," he jokes. Such will not be permitted if and when a new voice is added to the family choir.

A tone-deaf Jones? Unthinkable.

Look at Becky's children, for example. "I've always felt they should be good at something before junior high school," she said of the young quartet she produced. "Karen (who's 15) wants to be like Grandma – she plays the violin. But she's talking about becoming a doctor." Bryan, 13, enjoys music and painting, though his main goal is more earth-bound: "He wants to be wealthy," says Becky. Brent, 12, sings, of course.

Then there's Bobby. At 19, he is showing signs of an important career in opera. Becky, an established composer, pianist, choral conductor and painter on her own, takes great pride in her oldest boy. "Nat Merrill (director of Opera Colorado) said he could sing small roles at the Met already," she said. In fact, her son has been in the Opera Colorado Chorus at Boettcher Hall and in the recent production of The Burning Fiery Furnace. As a boy, he had sung Amahl in Menotti's celebrated Christmas opera. But then he turned into a teen-ager.

"When I was in school in Texas," Bobby says, "my voice started changing, and I got interested in other things – like architecture and football (his large frame allowed him to play tight end in high school). But then my baritone arrived, and that was it."

For Bobby, who crooned his first song at 3, singing has always been a part of life. His aunt, Randa, too has always sung. Kirsten points out how her sister "did a nice version of Jesus, Tender Shepherd at 16 months. And I used to sing myself to sleep at 2. It's always been someone's turn to sing."

Not that life is one continuous song swap for the family. All four Jones kids hold day jobs: Becky teaches school, Nathan is a contract administrator, Randa is a dentist (as is her singing husband, Randy Degerness), and Kirsten is in hotel management. Even Casey has been employed outside of music, once running a construction company in Alamosa.

Casey and Loraine always understood, however, that their children would learn the language of music. "Dad knew we were talented," Kirsten says. Becky nods in agreement. "He's controversial in his way – he's hard on people. But that's because he expects the best.

"I remember my first piano lessons. He'd make me play middle C over and over. I'd sit there crying as I played, and he'd say 'Come on – make it musical.' Now I know what he was doing with all that discipline: He was trying to make us better."

Following are some of the musical accomplishments of the Loraine and 'Casey' Jones family:

Rebecca Jones

Composer of more than 40 instrumental and choral works. Her string quartet was performed by the Kronos String Quartet of San Francisco; conducted youth choir at Augustana Lutheran Church in Denver; pianist; singer; artist; poet.

Nathan Jones

Third place, regional San Francisco Opera auditions; finalist, Metropolitan Opera district competition; soloist, St. John's Episcopal Cathedral in Denver; baritone soloist in local productions of The Messiah; Opera Colorado and Colorado Choir.

Randa Degerness

Finalist twice, Metropolitan Opera district competition; featured soloist with Denver and Pueblo Symphony orchestras, Columbine Orchestra and Colorado Choir; shorus, Opera Colorado; choir conductor at All Saints Lutheran Church in Aurora; assistant conduct, Colorado Choir; soloist, Denver Symphony; performs duets with husband, Randy Degerness.

Kirsten Jones

Soloist, Concordia College choir, Moorhead, Minn., and Augustana Lutheran Church choir of Denver; conductor, Augustana Cherub Choir; member, Colorado Choir.

Robert Gardner

Played monk in Opera Colorado ‘s The Burning Fiery Furnace; understudying lead for Opera Colorado production of L'Elisir D'Amore; played Amahl in Amahl and the Night Visitors; first chair, Texas all-state choir; toured Europe with American Boys Choir; member, Young Performers Hall of Fame.

Rebecca Jones

Currently Director of Concert Development and Marketing for the Colorado Choir; currently developing the American premiere of Requiem of Reconciliation for performance with full orchestra and vocal soli as a major millennium event for Denver and the State of Colorado; mother/pianist/coach to baritone Robert Gardner, Columbia Artists Management, Inc.; frequent pianist and soloist; visual artist of 'Pentecost', a 12'x26' centerpiece of the Colorado Convention Center for World Youth Day and the visit of Pope John Paul II.

Nathan Jones

President of the Colorado Choir for ten years; frequent soloist for the choir and for other city church and community events; Procurement Specialist for the City and County of Denver; Jill and Nathan have two daughters, Karli and Kelli.

Randa Degerness

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Kirsten Jones

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Robert Gardner

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Da capo