Introduction

Biography

Kurt was the son of Ot­to Kai­ser and Eli­za­beth Seum­per, and hus­band of Pa­tricia An­der­son.

He at­tend­ed the Am­er­ican Con­ser­va­tory of Mu­sic, then the North­west­ern Uni­ver­si­ty School of Mu­sic, where he earned ba­che­lor’s and mas­ter’s de­grees in mu­sic.

In 1959, he joined Word Re­cords as Di­rect­or of Ar­tists and Re­per­toire. He lat­er be­came Vice-Pre­si­dent and Di­rect­or of Mu­sic there.

From 1965–70, Kais­er served as di­rect­or of the Bay­lor Re­li­gious Hour Choir.

At the same time, he and Ralph Car­mi­chael be­gan writ­ing Chris­tian rock mu­sic­als geared to reach the youth of the time. Their first mu­sic­al, Tell It Like it Is, which in­clud­ed the song Pass It On, sold 2,500 copies, com­plete­ly sell­ing out the first run, and al­so sell­ing out its se­cond run of 100,000 co­pies.

Kaiser was in­duct­ed in­to the Gos­pel Mu­sic Hall of Fame in 2001.