Carl Wolfsohn was an American pianist and music teacher of German-Jewish descent. He was born on 14 December 1834 in Alzey, Germany.
From 1846 to 1848, he studied in Frankfurt with Aloys Schmitt. In December 1848, he made his public debut as a pianist in Ludwig van Beethoven's Quintet for Piano and Winds. He later studied in Mannheim with Vinzenz Lachner, accompanied the violinist Teresa Milanollo on her 1851 tour of Bavaria, and worked in London from 1852 to 1854.
Wolfsohn settled in Chicago in 1854. In 1873 he founded the Beethoven Society, Chicago's largest mixed choir, and led it for 12 years.
Some sources identify him as one of the first pianists to present concert series devoted to a single composer. In the early 1860s he reportedly gave a cycle of concerts of music by Frédéric Chopin, and in 1873 he performed all of Beethoven's piano sonatas.
At the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861, Wolfsohn wrote music for Douglas Brewerton's words “May God Save the Union,” which became a popular hymn in the Union army. His other works included songs, salon piano pieces, and piano arrangements of arias from the opera Faust.
He was a friend of Theodore Thomas and gave financial support to the establishment of the future Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His pupils included Alfredo Barili, Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler, and Augusta Cottlow.