Conn-Selmer

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This article is about the American firm. For the French firm, see Henri Selmer Paris.
Conn-Selmer
Private (subsidiary of Paulson & Co.)
Industry Musical instruments
Headquarters Elkhart, Indiana, USA
Number of locations
 Around 5 facilities (2011)
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 John Stoner, Jr.
President (since 2002)
Products Brasswinds
Percussion
Strings
Parent Steinway Musical Instruments, Inc.
Divisions C.G. Conn
Glaesel
King
Leblanc
Ludwig
Scherl & Roth
Selmer
Vincent Bach
Vito
Wm. Lewis & Son
Yanagisawa
Website www.conn-selmer.com

Conn-Selmer, Inc. is a manufacturer of musical instruments for concert bands, marching bands and orchestras. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Steinway Musical Instruments and was formed after Steinway bought musical instrument manufacturers The Selmer Company and C.G. Conn.

History

Founding

In the late 1800s, brothers Alexandre and Henri Selmer graduated from the Paris Conservatory as clarinetists. They were the great-grandchildren of French military drum major Johannes Jacobus Zelmer, grandchildren of Jean-Jacques Selmer, the Army Chief of Music, and two of 16 children in this musical family.[1] At the time, musical instruments and accessories were primarily hand made, and professional musicians found it necessary to acquire skills allowing them to make their own accessories and repair and modify their own instruments. Establishing Henri Selmer & Cie. in 1885, Henri began making clarinet reeds and expanded into mouthpieces.[1] By 1900 Henri had gained a reputation for his reeds and mouthpieces and he opened a store and repair shop in Paris.[1] He soon expanded into the construction of clarinets.

Recent history

Selmer acquired the Ludwig Drum Company in 1981.[2]

Selmer Industries acquired the Steinway Musical Properties company, the parent company of piano manufacturer Steinway & Sons, in 1995 and changed its name to Steinway Musical Instruments. In 2003 Steinway merged The Selmer Company with newly acquired United Musical Instruments (makers of Artley, Armstrong, Benge, C.G. Conn, King), to form Conn-Selmer.[3]

The employees at the Vincent Bach facility in Elkhart, Indiana represented by United Auto Workers Local 364, struck on April 1, 2006, and as of July 30, 2009, the union was decertified. Out of 230 workers that went out on strike approximately 70 returned with the remaining workers having been subject to recall until July 30, 2010.[4]

The employees represented by UAW Local 2359 at the Eastlake Ohio Conn-Selmer manufacturing plant called a strike on July 26, 2011, after working without a contract since February 2011,[5] and settled with the company on October 21, 2011.[6]

Conn-Selmer is the largest manufacturer of band and orchestral instruments in the United States. It manufactures instruments in approximately five facilities since 2002:

Products

Current products

Discontinued products

  • Armstrong (flutes, piccolos)
  • Avanti (flutes)
  • Artley (clarinets)
  • Benge (trumpets, piccolo trumpets, trombones)
  • Cleveland (brass instruments)
  • Emerson (flutes, piccolos)
  • Galway Spirit Flutes (flutes)
    • Hermann Beyer
    • Otto Bruckner
  • Martin (jazz trombones)
  • Noblet (clarinets)
  • UMI (mouthpieces and accessories)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Priestly, Brian, Bacon, tony anmd Trynka, Paul, Selmer (Paris), The Sax and Brass Book, Backbeat Books, 1998, p.100–113
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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