Carl Stamitz was Czech-German composer, violin, viola and viola d'amore virtuoso. He was the most prominent of the second generation of the Mannheim school. He was first taught music by Johann Stamitz, his father and founder of the Mannheim school. He played in the orchestra at Mannheim from 1762, and in 1770 he moved to Paris. In Paris he was court composer and conductor to the Duc de Noailles before moving to The Hague in 1780 to work as a violist at the court of William V, Prince of Orange. Between 1788 and 1790 he spent a lot of time touring and in the last years of his life moved to Jena, where he was Kapellmeister and a teacher at the University.