UW-Superior music instructor Tyler Kaiser is a Duluth, Minnesota, native who is active in this region as a composer, performer and educator. As a composer he has earned national recognition with several awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and numerous grants, fellowships and commissions. Notable among these are a National Endowment for the Arts grant for the Continental Harmony project, two McKnight/ARAC fellowships and commissions from the American Recorder Society, Arts Midwest/Meet the Composer, Matinee Musicale, the College of St. Scholastica, and the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra. He is also one of the composers in residence with the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra. His compositions cover the gamut of instruments and styles, including two operas, works for orchestra, chamber orchestra, concert band, and chamber music.

As a performer he is involved with many of the regions best musical talent. As a guitarist he has been concerto soloist with the LSCO and the ISO. His guitar arrangement of his own “Cotton Cantata” was used as the soundtrack for a documentary of the NEA/ACF funded Continental Harmony project. He also performs on occasion with the Arrowhead Chorale, the North Shore Big Band and the Minnesota Lute Quartet. As a horn player he performs with the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, the Center for Early Music Orchestra and the Horns of a Dilemma Quartet. He is also a former member of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra.

He has studied guitar with Daniel K. Sturm, and master classes with Peter Segal, Toyohiko Satoh and Hopkinson Smith. He has studied horn with Miles “Mighty” Johnson. He has studied composition with Daniel K. Sturm and Arthur C. Campbell. He has a B.A. in guitar performance & composition from the College of St. Scholastica (from which he graduated summa cum laude).