Venczel József Schunda
1845 - 1923
ActiveBudapest, Hungary
BiographyThere is little information available about Hungarian-Czech instrument builder Venczel József Schunda (1845 – 1923) beyond the fact that he worked primarily as a piano builder in the late nineteenth century, and was based in Budapest, Hungary throughout the entirety of his career. Schunda’s career began when his older brother, József Schunda (1818 – 1894), also an instrument builder, established a workshop in Budapest in 1848 and invited Venczel to join as an apprentice builder in 1856. Venczel eventually became a partner in the business and later the owner of the workshop, overseeing all construction and design decisions. In 1870, Venczel sought to redesign the folk hammered dulcimer that was popular among the Romani peoples of Austria-Hungary and used the instrument as the foundation for the first concert cimbalom, which emerged in 1874 with serial production of the instrument following shortly thereafter. The instrument was featured at the 1878 World’s Fair in Paris, and by 1906 the workshop had produced several thousand units.
