Nick Kaiser

Nick Kaiser began making music as a three-year-old violinist, studying the Suzuki method under John Kendall, who helped introduce the Japanese ear-training practice in America. Those early years spent playing Bach, Mozart and Vivaldi led to a youthful summer at the Interlochen National Music Camp in Traverse City, Michigan. Two years of cello studies followed before Nick turned to acoustic guitar.

After honing his six and twelve-string instrumental skills, he became the driving force behind a string of acoustic groups working the campus and coffeehouse scenes in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain West. Rooted in classical string studies, this primarily fingerstyle guitarist turned to songwriting as his most natural form of expression. He covers the musical bases with confidence and authority; the writing is smart, firmly planted in the American folk spirit with detours into acoustic rock, Celtic, jazz, blues and bluegrass/traditional. Equally comfortable in fingerstyle and flatpicking styles, Nick plays and sings mostly by “ears of training.”

Nick has performed in numerous venues around New England including The Music Box in Craftsbury, VT, Briggs Carriage Bookstore in Brandon, VT, The Old Sloop Coffeehouse in Rockport, MA, Sunapee Community Coffeehouse in Lake Sunapee, NH and the Trapp Family Meadow in Stowe, VT. Always willing to expand his musical abilities, Nick lent his guitar and vocal skills to the 2004 Middlebury Community Players production of “Working”, based on the Studs Terkel book and adapted for the musical stage by Stephen Schwartz (“Wicked” & “Pippin”). He reprised those same roles for Waitsfield’s Valley Players in 2009. Later, Nick sang tenor with the Thetford Chamber Singers in the Thomas Tallis Mass for 4 Voices for their Peace Concert performed in 2011 in Strafford, VT. More recently, Nick sang tenor for two seasons with the a cappella group House Blend in the Saxtons River area and for a time with River Singers.

While maintaining his musical career, Nick worked 25 years for prominent radio and television stations in the Burlington, Vermont market after graduating Emerson College with a degree in Communications/Journalism. Along the way, he spent two summers at Tanglewood as recording engineer for the Berkshire Music Center and Boston Symphony Orchestra. When a loved one was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999, Nick turned to his songwriting as a way to express his support, crafting “The Journey” which became an anthem for dozens of women going through a similar experience. The song raised $5,000 for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation chapter in Manchester, Vermont and touched hundreds of lives across the country.

In 2007, Nick organized a fundraiser for the Addison County Community Action Group to help alleviate and draw attention to the shortage of affordable housing in Middlebury, Vermont. The project raised $1,000 in a community known for its generosity and support of the disadvantaged. His work on the board of the John Graham Emergency Shelter in Addison County helped mark the organization’s 30^th anniversary with a musical gala and fundraiser in 2010. Spring 2017 found Nick re-visiting his violin roots, studying Irish fiddling with teacher Randy Miller of Alstead, NH and culminating in a concert in mid-May.

With the kids now grown and on their own, Nick is back to songwriting, recording and performance, finalizing his second CD, “Woodshedding”, the follow-up to “Almost True.” Both recordings feature all-original material centered around his skillful acoustic guitar work with harmony vocals, mandolin, violin, keyboards and percussion. He considers his talents as blessings that enable him to improve the human condition and speak to the heart.

nicpicker@gmail.com

cell 802.289.9343

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