In violin he was taught by Carl Rodewald; his organ teacher was Johannes Becker (born 1726), the Hessian court organist.
In the same year Kalkbrenner married the socially well connected widow of an army captain who had died as a soldier in the United States.
[4] In 1788 or 1789,[5] some time after the death of landgrave Frederic II of Hesse, Kalkbrenner was named Kapellmeister of Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, Queen of Prussia.
Nevertheless, this was a secure position with one of the major German princes, an enlightened philosopher-sovereign whom Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben recommended to Alexander Hamilton as a candidate for the American Presidency.
Henry's portrait as drawn by an eminent biographer of his older brother Frederick the Great is not unflattering:[6][7] In 1796 the Kalkbrenner family surfaced in Italy where they stayed for two years.
[9] Together with Ludwig Wenzel Lachnith, a Bohemian horn player and composer, he produced a number of infamous pasticcios for the Paris Opera.
It is somewhat surprising, though, that Kalkbrenner attained this much coveted position in revolutionary France after spending most of his life at courts that were distinctly hostile to the French Revolution.
Coming from a humble background (as the family name clearly suggests [10]) and with Jewish roots, he rose within a relatively short time to one of the preeminent positions in 18th century musical Germany.
Having spent his whole life at smaller European courts that were decidedly hostile towards the French Revolution, he nevertheless managed within a few years to attain a respected position in post-revolutionary France.