Jeff Kaiser

Jeff Kaiser is a composer, trumpet player, conductor, and private music instructor residing in the cozy town of Ventura, CA, where he does the lion's share of his performances. More distinctively, he is one of the few former preachers working in the field of avant-garde music and sometimes works the language and hysterics of a fundamendalist sermon into his performance, with delightful results. Despite the raw and wild sound of many of his recordings and performances, he is a classically trained performer with a bachelor's degree in music composition from Westmont College and a master's degree in both choral and orchestral conducting from Azusa Pacific University. He has received a number of grants, honors, and awards and runs his own record label. Yet much of his energy is also spent reaching out to the world of avant-garde music at large, producing a concert series that has provided at least one more in the always minimal number of Southern California performing possibilities for contemporary musicians based out of Los Angeles, as well as national and international touring artists. He had recieved the Individual Artist Fellowship from the city of Ventura no less than ten times by 2002, and is a three-time recipient of the Forum of the Arts Grant administered by the Ventura County Museum of History and Art. As a trumpeter, Kaiser is an in-demand collaborator with groups such as the Michael Vlatkovich Brass Trio, the Motor Totemist Guild, Headless Household, the Vinny Golia Large Ensemble, and Dan Plonsey & the Human Behavior Orchestra. He also leads his own ensembles, featuring excellent West Coast players such as percussionist Brad Dutz and guitarist Woody Aplanalp. Kaiser created the musical score and sound effects for the award-winning independent film by Ted Mills,...