Herr Kaiser is the nickname Kathleen Piper gives to her vocal teacher. He is a German man who lives in New York. Kaiser is a hard taskmaster with Kathleen but also has some compassion, as evidenced by his willingness to hire Rose Lacroix back at Kathleen's insistence. He arranges for Kathleen to audition for the Metropolitan Opera but James takes her back to New Waterford before the audition.