Zundel, John

Composer

b Hochdorf, Germany 1815, d Cannstadt, Germany 1882. Studied violin and organ in Germany; in 1840 became organist of St Anne’s Lutheran Church at St Petersburg, Russia, where he was also bandmaster of the Imperial House Guards. In 1847 he moved to New York, remaining in America for most of his professional musical career. After briefly serving churches in Brooklyn and Manhattan, he settled from Jan 1850 at Plymouth Congregational Church Brooklyn, where Henry Ward Beecher was Pastor. The church became famous, and gave birth to a well-known catch-phrase, ‘Let’s go hear Beecher and Zundel!’. He published and edited many musical collections, some with Beecher. After leaving New York he had a brief spell with the Methodist Episcopal Church in Detroit before returning to Germany in 1880, where he died 2 years later. No.30A.