Carl Valentin Wunderle (April 13, 1866 - February 16, 1944) was a German-American musician and composer. 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. He played numerous instruments including the viola d'amore, for which he wrote several compositions. Early life in Germany Carl Valentin Wunderle was born on 13 April 1866 in Melleck, Germany, a small village in the mountains just south of Munich on the Austrian border. He lived in Munich for at least part of his youth. Little is known about his parents, but it is clear that they had the means, the know-how, and the drive to promote their three musically talented children as “child wonders.” Beginning in early 1882 when Carl was 15 years old, he and his brother Constantine, age 14, and his sister Minna, age 13, formed the “Wunderkind” Trio. They spent six years performing together. Carl played the violin, and also accompanied his siblings on the piano when they sang duets. Constantine also played the zither, and Minna the guitar. All three children gave recitations. The Wunderkind trio toured throughout Europe, performing in Germany, Austria, Russia, Spain and England before kings, countesses, and nobles. Carl was also a student at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München in Munich, Germany from 1880 to 1886. While there he studied and that he studied violin under a man named Brückner (not Anton Bruckner) and eventually also counterpoint under Josef Rheinberger. His fellow students included the likes of Richard Strauss and Horatio Parker. 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 1888 he played with the Exposition Orchestra in Munich. In 1889 he was concert master of the Kurhaus Orchestra in Bad Kissingen. In 1890 he played with the Meininger Court Orchestra in Meiningen. 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). In 1892 he was with the Exposition Orchestra in Vienna and later with the Hans von Bülow Orchestra in Hamburg. Symphony career in the United States Carl Wunderle emigrated to America