KÜHNL & HOYER

After being driven out of Sudetenland during the war, Adolf and Josef Kühnl joined forces with Emil Hoyer to found Kühnl & Hoyer in 1948. 

The municipality of Markt Erlbach offered the shooting club’s gallery as a workshop for brass instruments. Alongside a few tools, the company’s only seed capital was its traditional expertise in the construction of brass instruments. To begin with, business was limited to the production of piston valve trumpets and brass instrument repairs. 

After the currency reforms, the workshop equipment was updated to incorporate new technological advances. At the same time, the company’s product portfolio grew. In light of a steady increase in musical instrument demand, the workshop was expanded to include a series of cutting-edge production rooms in 1952, without losing sight of the traditional art of instrument crafting. Based on the rapid growth of the company, the first proper production plant was constructed in 1957. 

In 1962, Emil Hoyer left the company, and business was continued by Adolf and Josef Kühnl. Today, the company is run by the third generation of the family, Dieter Kühnl. 

The company’s portfolio now spans a range of brass instruments, such as trumpets, cornets, flugelhorns, trombones, tenor horns and baritones, in addition to signal and hunting instruments. Every single instrument is produced in the plant in Markt Erlbach. 

Traditional expertise of brass instrument construction is combined with the consistent inclusion of industrial know-how and the latest computer-aided measuring and tuning methods to guarantee truly unbeatable quality. Along with traditional instrument crafting techniques, such knowledge has been passed on to countless apprentices since 1949. 

Kühnl & Hoyer collaborates with renowned musicians and music educators to develop and adapt new instruments to the requirements of clients. 

The latest manufacturing processes and production controls ensure the environmentally-friendly creation of instruments. Every instrument produced by Kühnl & Hoyer is subjected to a comprehensive quality control procedure. 

Such claims to high quality have already been proven by the conferral of the German Musical Instrument Award six times. 

As a result of collaboration with Professor Branimir Slokar, soloist and teacher, the ‘Slokar’ trombone series was launched in 1995. It is presented by the Slokar Trombone Quartet in its concerts all over the world. 

Beginning in 1996, several trombone models suitable for jazz, big band and symphony use were developed in collaboration with the Dutch jazz trombonist and Hilversum Conservatory teacher, Bart van Lier. 

With Professor Malte Burba, the Universities of Music Dresden and Mainz, and world-renowned trumpet specialists famous for their concerts and brass workshops, we developed the ‘Malte Burba’ edition. Since 2001, this collaborative project has yielded a range of trumpets and flugelhorns both for universal use and the professional sector. 

Constant innovation and our wealth of experience gathered over more than 70 years in instrument construction unite to guarantee the even scale, unmatched responsiveness, good intonation and the finest finishes of our instruments.