John Connolly

John Connolly established the Connolly Music Company (originally Connolly & Co., Inc.) back in 1970. Best known for distributing such brands as Thomastik-Infeld and König & Meyer, the company remains a family owned enterprise, with John's son, Jake, now at the helm. In 1954 John was hired by William Gratz as general manager of his wholesale business, which distributed products such as Hofner, Paesold, Bohm & Meinl, Kohlert, and Thomastik-Infeld. The company was sold to John after Mr. Gratz’ passing in the 1960s. He later decided to form his own company, Connolly Music, in 1969 with a focus on the string industry since at that time Thomastik-Infeld had just developed the world's first synthetic string.