Carl Valentin Wunderle

He was a child prodigy in music, and spent his entire adult life playing violin and viola in major U.S. orchestras in Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati, while at the same time maintaining a separate concertizing career.

Carl Valentin Wunderle was born on 13 April 1866[1] in Melleck,[2] Kingdom of Bavaria, a small village in the mountains just south of Munich on the Austrian border.

The Wunderkind trio toured throughout Europe, performing in Germany, Austria, Russia, Spain and England before kings, countesses, and nobles.

[3] In 1888, when Carl was 21 years old, the Wunderkind trio disbanded, and he continued his professional career in a number of European orchestras.

In 1891 he was at the Hochschule in Berlin where he studied under Joseph Joachim, and he spent the summer of that year as the concert master of the Kurhaus Orchestra in Riga, Russia (now Latvia).

[4] Carl Wunderle emigrated to America on 15 April 1893 to play in an orchestra at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, which opened its doors two weeks after his arrival.

[6] Carl Wunderle had married a fellow German, Margaretha Winzer, by the time he joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1893.

[10] In addition to his symphony work, Carl Wunderle built a reputation for himself as a performer, musical educator, and composer.

[10] Published works by Carl Wunderle include Manuscript works by Carl Wunderle include Compositions and arrangements for the viola d'amore which were donoted by John and Pearl Poellet to the [New York Public Library for the Performing Arts] at Lincoln Center and are housed with the Walter Voigtlander Collection[14] there.