Josef Kuder

Biography

Josef Kuder, partner in the New York firm of Sohmer & Company, was a native of Bohemia, Austria. As a boy he went to Vienna and spent seven years learning piano-making in the shop of Heintzmann before emigrating to New York in 1854. His first American position was with Steinway & Sons, then located on Walker Street; after about a year he entered the employ of Lighte, Newton & Bradbury, rising to department foreman in charge of grand and square regulating and finishing. Owing to the depression following the panic of 1857, he returned to Vienna in 1861 and re-entered Heintzmann's shop, but grew tired of life there and came back to New York in 1864. He then took a position with Marschall & Mittauer, remaining until the firm's dissolution in 1871, and continued under its successor, Boernhoeft, until he joined Mr. Sohmer to found Sohmer & Company in 1872 — a firm that in turn became successor to Boernhoeft.

Highlights

• Native of Bohemia, Austria; trained seven years in Vienna under Heintzmann before emigrating to New York in 1854.
• Worked at Steinway & Sons (then on Walker Street) and later as department foreman for grand and square regulating and finishing at Lighte, Newton & Bradbury.
• Returned to Vienna in 1861 amid the depression following the panic of 1857, then back to New York in 1864; worked for Marschall & Mittauer and successor Boernhoeft before co-founding Sohmer & Company with Mr. Sohmer in 1872.

Source

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 255, 256.

Public domain.