One of the most prominent violin makers working today, Samuel Zygmuntowicz was born in Philadelphia. He trained at the Violin Making School of America in Salt Lake City and in the workshops of Carl Becker and René Morel.
Zygmuntowicz is celebrated for his exceptional copies of instruments by Cremonese masters, including his 1994 replica of a Guarneri del Gesù violin owned by Isaac Stern, which in 2003 set a record for the highest auction price paid for a musical instrument by a living maker. Joshua Bell, Cho-Liang Lin, Dylana Jensen, Leila Josefowicz, Maxim Vengerov, Yo-Yo Ma, Allison Eldredge, and the members of the Emerson String Quartet are among the renowned string players who have commissioned instruments from Zygmuntowicz.
In 2006, Zygmuntowicz, together with violin acoustician Dr. George Bissinger and a team of musicians and scientists, performed new methods of acoustical analysis on three important Cremonese violins through three-dimensional (3D) modal laser vibration analysis and computed tomography (CT) scans. The pioneering methods led to the "Strad3D Project"-a multidisciplinary program Zygmuntowicz created in collaboration with luthiers at the Oberlin Violin Acoustic Workshops combining modern technological acoustical analyses of instruments with traditional methods of study.
Sam Zygmuntowicz is the subject of "The Violin Maker," written by John Marchese in 2007, which follows the building of a violin for violinist Eugene Drucker from the maker's studio in Brooklyn, New York.
