Schunke, Karl

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Schunke, Karl

Schunke, Karl, German pianist, teacher, and composer, cousin of Ludwig Schunke; b. Magdeburg, 1801; d. (suicide) Paris, Dec. 16, 1839. He studied music with his father, the horn player Michael Schunke (1778–1821), then took some lessons with Ferdinand Ries, whom he accompanied to London. In 1828 he went to Paris, where he became a fashionable piano teacher; nevertheless, he suffered from some sort of malaise and killed himself. He composed a number of brilliant salon pieces a la mode and transcriptions of operatic arias for piano.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire