Jacob Kunkel

Jacob Kunkel Sheet Music

  • Born: 22nd October 1846
  • Died: 16th October 1882

German-born Jacob and Charles Kunkel established the Kunkel Brothers publishing firm in 1868. The brothers were concert pianists both having studied with Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Charles having also studied with Sigismond Thalberg. The firm published many of the brothers' own compositions under their own names and under various pseudonyms. Other midwest composers whose work the firm published included Julia Rive-King, Robert Goldbeck, and Ernest Richard Kroeger. After Jacob's death in 1882 Charles became the sole operator of the firm which apparently did not survive his own death in 1923. In September, 1878 Kunkel Brothers began publishing their monthly magazine Kunkel's Musical Review. Each volume contained a significant amount of music (over fifty pages by 1899) in full sheet music size. Publication of the journal ceased with volume thirty-two in October, 1909.