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

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

© Copyright 1997 by The National Music Museum.
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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 (1985-present)

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, the current Chairman of UMI.

Since 1985, UMI has 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 and is now independently owned and operated. Conn continues to flourish as a division of UMI. The recounting of its continued history and impact must, however, await future historical assessment.

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For further information, please contact:

Dr. Margaret Downie Banks, Curator of Musical Instruments
National Music Museum
The University of South Dakota
414 East Clark Street
Vermillion, SD 57069-2390

E-mail: mbanks@usd.edu

This page updated April 5, 2000.
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