A Brief History of the Conn Company (1874-present)*

by Margaret Downie Banks, Ph.D.
Senior Curator of Musical Instruments
National Music Museum
Vermillion, South Dakota

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*Excerpted and updated from Elkhart's Brass Roots: An Exhibition to Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of C. G. Conn's Birth and the 120th Anniversary of the Conn Company by Margaret Downie Banks (Vermillion, South Dakota: The Shrine to Music Museum, 1994).

United Musical Instruments Era (1985-2003)

Daniel Henkin sold his holding in the Conn Company in October 1985 to the Swedish conglomerate, Skäne Gripen. A new parent corporation, United Musical Instruments (UMI), was formed and sold, in 1985, to an investment group headed by Bernhard Muskantor.

UMI closed the Abilene facility (1986) and moved all production to the expanded (formerly King) Eastlake, Ohio, facility. The company also moved all its operations out of Mexico (1987), with the production of Artley flutes and piccolos returning to the (formerly Armstrong) Elkhart facility, and clarinets, saxophones, and small brass moving to the expanded (formerly Coin-Art) Nogales, Arizona, facility. Continental Music was closed and a new UMI accessory division opened in Elkhart to replace it. The Goshen Case Co. was sold in 1987.

In September 2000, Steinway Musical Instruments, Inc. acquired United Musical Instruments, which was eventually merged with The Selmer Company (January 2003), another division of Steinway, to form a single entity under the name, Conn-Selmer, Inc.

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