Background
Despite his interest in music, Kastner studied theology at the University of Strasbourg at the request of his father from 1827 to 1832.
composer music educator musicologist
Despite his interest in music, Kastner studied theology at the University of Strasbourg at the request of his father from 1827 to 1832.
After the premiere of his opera The Queen of the Sarmatian in 1835 in Strasbourg, the city council granted him a scholarship to the Paris Conservatoire where he studied with Anton Reicha and Henri Montan Berton.
Kastner"s parents were Johann Georg Kastner, from Dettwiller, and Marie Salome Pfeiffer, from Woerth. Kastner"s strongest interest was in wind music, and he was especially interested in the instrumental inventions of Adolphe Sax. His compositions for saxhorn and alto saxophone were among the earliest works written for these instruments.
Included in his Manuel général de musique militaire (1848) are some of the earliest illustrations of Sax"s instruments.
Kastner was the father of physician and musician Frédéric Kastner, inventor of the pyrophone.