In 1880, he moved to the United States whereupon he concertized as a violin soloist for four years before accepting a position in the orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. He lived in New York until 1908. During that time, he founded the Venth College of Music in Brooklyn (1889) with his first wife, composer and pianist Lydia Kunz Venth, with whom he had a daughter, Elsa. He founded and conducted the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra in 1890, founded and led the Venth String Quartet in 1891, and served as conductor or concertmaster with the Euterpe Orchestral Society of New York and the St. Paul Symphony.