Giovanni Lucchi was born in Cesena in 1942.
He studied double bass at the Conservatory of Pesaro with Maestro Giorgio Scala, graduating in 1962.
After three years touring Sweden with the Swedish-Romagna orchestra, he returned to Italy, where he immediately won the competition for a double bass position in the orchestra of the Teatro Stabile in Bologna.
In 1971 he discovered his true vocation, bow making, through necessity rather than choice. He began by rehairing his own bow and those of his colleagues, then responded to increasingly numerous and demanding requests from musicians faced with a shortage of bow makers. Giovanni Lucchi quickly refined his skills.
He learned the techniques and secrets of the craft from two great masters of the time: first the Swiss bow maker Siegfried Finkel, then the Rimini violin maker Arturo Fracassi. This awakened an immense thirst for knowledge and understanding that would remain with him throughout his life. It led him to keep perfecting his technique, starting with the search for the finest materials: wood and horsehair, mother-of-pearl and precious metals.
In 1976 the local institutions invited him to open Italy’s first School for Bow Makers in Cremona, where he would teach for 35 years.
In 1978 he settled permanently in Cremona, where he practised and taught bow making for the rest of his life. He constantly sought a perfection that would never compromise function or sound. He was unafraid to offer, almost insist on, his knowledge and expertise even to the most experienced musicians, confident in the proven quality of his work. He is pictured with Maestro Rostropovich.
He died in Cremona in 2012, leaving his children a rich heritage of knowledge and a firm recommendation: share, pass on, teach and continue the study and research of bow making.
After their father’s death, his children chose to follow one final piece of advice: “Do not make the mistake of continuing to stamp bows with my name when I am no longer here to supervise them!” On 28 September 2012, during Cremona Mondomusica, the stamp with which the Maestro had signed all his bows was officially cancelled by his children in a public ceremony. Their gesture was first and foremost a tribute to their father, while also providing assurance to the owners of bows bearing the G. Lucchi-Cremona stamp.