Johann Carl Hermann Kotzschmar (July 4, 1829 – April 15, 1908) was a German-American musician, conductor, and composer. Kotzschmar was born in 1829 in Finsterwalde, Germany. His father, Johann Gottfried Kotzschmar, was the town Stadtmusiker and taught his son to play the violin, keyboard, flute, and horn. At age 14, Kotzschmar went to Dresden to study with , a choral conductor who was the cantor at the Dresden Kreuzkirche. He studied with Otto for five years, then emigrated to America with a group of other musicians from Dresden who called themselves the Saxonia Band. The group toured New York and Philadelphia with Fry's Italian Opera, then split up when the show folded in Boston.