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. At first, the setlist revolved around songwriters named Simon, Lightfoot, Taylor, Stills, Browne, Mitchell, Fogelberg. It wasn’t long before Nick realized he too could put pen to paper and early musings lit the flame in 1974. The writing is 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.” He’s currently planning a soft cover book of the lyrics to his nearly 90 original pieces of work.
Nick’s Colorado roots run deep. High school was at the foot of majestic Mount Sopris at CRMS in Carbondale. Years later, Nick lived in Colorado Springs where he and Footloose appeared often at The Musical Spoon and Jose Muldoon’s. After a 35-year Broadcasting career and raising a great family in New England, Nick returned to the Rockies, eventually performing with Littleton-based The Dragonflies where he met current partner Beth Remming and formed Coloraduo. The pair has entertained audiences in Black Forest, Salida, Penrose, Almont, Berthoud, Twin Lakes, Leadville, Poncha Springs, Eagle, Niwot, Denver, Littleton and Boulder. Nick delightedly answered the call to play guitar with the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra during the 2024 holiday shows, a true highlight!
While maintaining his musical interests, Nick worked 25 years for prominent radio and television stations in the Burlington, Vermont market after graduating Emerson College with a degree in Communications, minor in Journalism. Along the way, he spent several 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 once again to songwriting to express care and 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 & 2010, Nick organized and promoted concert fundraisers to address the shortage of affordable housing in Middlebury, Vermont. Spring 2017 found Nick re-conneting with his violin roots, studying Irish fiddling with pro fiddler extraordinaire Randy Miller of Alstead, NH and culminating in a concert in mid-May.
Performances around New England featured stops at illustrious locals in VT, NH and MA including the breathtaking Trapp Family Meadow in Stowe, VT. The Middlebury Community Players enlisted Nick to add guitar and vocals to their 2004 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 the Valley Players of Waitsfield, VT in 2009. Nick sang tenor with the Thetford Chamber Singers in the Thomas Tallis Mass for 4 Voices for their Peace Concert in 2011 and from 2013-2015 with the a cappella group House Blend in the Saxtons River area and for a time with River Singers, all three successful recording and touring ensembles in Northern New England.
Now back home in the West, Nick’s recent activities focus on researching, arranging and marketing material for Coloraduo. While producing Coloraduo’s debut Blue and Green, he also wrapped production on a personal recording project titled Woodshed, the all-original CD successor to Almost True (2016). His background editing audio and video productions is re-emerging in music videos headed for the Internet. Nick is enjoying semi-retirement, traveling through Colorado in a vintage fiberglass camper meeting new friends whose stories might just end up in a new composition (with permission, of course!~)
Nick acknowledges and thanks his adopted parents for two prime elements that grace his songwriting. First, mother Evalyn nurtured his early exposure to music, especially the classical oeuvre where daily practice was paramount, even in summer when neighborhood chums came calling for a 2nd baseman. Dad Rick was the linguist, getting Nick reading early and learning to love the flow of language in fiction, theatre and poetry. These gifts of parental support and guidance played huge roles in Nick’s musical development, creativity and discovery.
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