Carl Philipp Stamitz (Czech: Karel Stamic; born in Mannheim and baptized 8 May 1745 – 9 November 1801), was a German composer of partial Czech ancestry of the Classical era. He was the most prominent representative of the second generation of the Mannheim School.

He was the eldest son of Johann Stamitz, a violinist and composer of the early classical period. He received lessons from his father and Christian Cannabich, his father's successor as leader of the Mannheim orchestra. As a youth, Stamitz was employed as a violinist in the court orchestra at Mannheim. In 1770, he began travelling as a virtuoso, accepting short-term engagements, but never managing to gain a permanent position. He visited a number of European cities, living for a time in Strasbourg and London. In 1794, he gave up travelling and moved with his family to Jena in central Germany. His circumstances deteriorated and he descended into debt and poverty, dying in 1801. Many tracts on alchemy were found in his library after his death.

Stamitz wrote symphonies, symphonies concertantes, and concertos for clarinet, cello, flute, oboe, bassoon, basset horn, violin, viola, viola d'amore, and different combinations of these instruments. Some of his clarinet and viola concertos are particularly admired. He also wrote duos, trios, and quartets. Two operas, Der verliebte Vormund and Dardanus, are now lost.

Stylistically, his music resembles that of Mozart or Haydn and is characterized by appealing melodies, although his writing for the solo instruments is not excessively virtuosic. The opening movements of his orchestral works, which are in sonata form, are generally followed by expressive and lyrical middle movements and the final movements in the form of a rondo.

Carl Stamitz was born at Mannheim and baptized on 8 May 1745, the eldest son of Maria Antonia Luneborn and Johann Stamitz, a violinist and composer of the early classical era. Johann Stamitz was the leader of the highly-reputed court orchestra at Mannheim Palace and he trained the orchestra to be disciplined and technically polished. The players created a sensation with their ability to play with subtlety and precision, as well as with a great dynamic range.

Carl received his first lessons in violin and musical composition from his father. After Johann Stamitz's death in 1757, the 12-year-old Stamitz was taught by the composer Christian Cannabich, his father's successor as concert-master and leader of the Mannheim orchestra. Ignaz Holzbauer, the court-director of music. The court-composer Franz Xaver Richter also had a hand in the boy's education.

By the time he was seventeen, Stamitz was employed as a violinist in the court orchestra. In 1770, he resigned from his post and began travelling. As a travelling virtuoso on the violin, the viola, and viola d'amore, Stamitz often accepted short-term engagements, but never managed to gain a permanent position with one of the European princes nor in one of the orchestras of his time.^{[citation needed]}

In 1770 he went to Paris, where his father had a yearlong professional stay in Paris in 1754 that had been very successful before returning to Mannheim. Initially, Stamitz went into service with Louis, Duke of Noailles, who made him his court composer. He also appeared in the Concerts Spirituels, sometimes together with his brother Anton, who probably had come to Paris with him. With Paris as his base, he made frequent concert tours to a number of German cities: on 12 April 1773, he appeared in Frankfurt; a year later he was in Augsburg; and in 1775, he ventured as far as the Russian capital, Saint Petersburg. In 1777, he dwelt for a time in Strasbourg where Franz Xaver Richter was music director.