Giovanni Lucchi (21 August 1942, in

Cesena Cesena (; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy; and - with Forlì - is the capital of the Province of Forlì-Cesena. Served by Autostrada A14 (Italy), Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine M ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

– 2 August 2012, in

Cremona Cremona ( , , ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po (river), Po river in the middle of the Po Valley. It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local city a ...

) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

bow maker A bow maker is a person who builds, repairs, and restores antique or modern Bow (music), bows for bowed string instruments. These include violins, violas, cellos, double basses, viola d'amore, viola da gamba, etc. The French word for bowmaker (b ...

noted for founding the first school of bow making in Italy.

Background

Giovanni Lucchi trained as a

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

ist, graduating from the

Conservatorio Statale di Musica "Gioachino Rossini" The Conservatorio Statale di Musica "Gioachino Rossini" is a music conservatory in Pesaro, Italy. Founded in 1869 with a legacy from the composer Gioachino Rossini, the conservatory officially opened in 1882 with 67 students and was then known as ...

Pesaro Pesaro (; ) is a (municipality) in the Italy, Italian region of Marche, capital of the province of Pesaro and Urbino, on the Adriatic Sea. According to the 2011 census, its population was 95,011, making it the second most populous city in the ...

in 1963. He worked for several years as a musician and instructor, and in 1971, he began constructing and restoring bows. He went to

Brienz Brienz ( , , ) is a village and Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality on the northern shore of Lake Brienz, at the foot of the Brienzer Rothorn mountain, and in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. Besides the village of Brienz, th ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

to apprentice under S. Finkel.

Career

In 1976, Lucchi founded a school for bowmaking in

, where he taught courses in bow construction, maintenance and restoration, as well as style and design. In 1983, Lucchi invented the Lucchi Meter, a device used to measure the speed of sound in wood that has become a standard tool not only for bow makers. The LucchiMeter is used to give the right price to the pieces of tonewood. Lucchi was active within the community of

luthier A luthier ( ; ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments. Etymology The word ' is originally French and comes from ''luth'', the French word for "lute". The term was originally used for makers of lutes, but it came to be ...

s and

s, holding various posts among professional societies and writing and speaking often in journals and conferences relating to the art. A Giovanni Lucchi violin bow (ebony and silver mounted) was recently sold at auction for €12,100 o
Catawiki

Pupils

Maestro Lucchi Giovanni had a lot pupils, many of whom later became significant artists in their own right, here a little partial list: Emilio Slaviero, Daniel Tobias Navea Vera, Pietro Cavalazzi, Giorgio Grisales, Francisco Gonzalez Espinoza, Octavio Aranda, Andreas Grütter, Llorenç Fenollosa, Zheng Quan, Arturo Moreno, Juliane Schanzenbach, Paolo Pamiro, Andrea Proietti, Arturo Ponce, Gastaldi Marco Maria, Ivan Delgado e Michalis Pantelides.

Professional activities

* Secretary, Italian Association of Violin and Bow Makers (1991 to 1992) * President, Violin and Bow Makers of the Artisans' Association of the Province of Cremona (1991 to 1998) * Representative for Cremona to the Triennale Assembly (1995 - 1998) * Member of the European Association of Master Violin and Bow Makers (1996 - 2000)

Publications

* * * * * Lucchi, Giovanni (1996). ''The Bow'', Multimedia

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

Reputation

Lucchi's reputation was such that he was the

for artists such as

Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian Cello, cellist and conducting, conductor. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was well known for both inspiring and commissioning new works, which enl ...

Pinchas Zukerman Pinchas Zukerman (; born 16 July 1948) is an Israeli-American violinist, violist and conductor. Life and career Zukerman was born in Tel Aviv, to Jewish parents and Holocaust survivors Yehuda and Miriam Lieberman Zukerman. He began his musica ...

and

Gary Karr Gary Michael Karr (born November 20, 1941, in Los Angeles) is an American classical double bass virtuoso and teacher; he is considered one of the best bassists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Biography Although he comes from several generations ...

, among others.

Lucchi Foundation

The “ Fondazione Lucchi” comes from the desire to continue the work of the Bowmaker Maestro Giovanni Lucchi. Those who knew him knows he loved to share the culture of handcraft and his discoveries.
One of his great project was to create a foundation that would promote research, discovery about materials, knowledge of the violin bow.
We’ve made in his memory, because the cultural legacy he left us can get to many people in all parts of the world, as he wished.

References

External links

Personal Page

Lucchi Foundation Site
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lucchi, Giovanni Bow makers 1942 births 2012 deaths