Instrument: Bass

Lynn Hannings is a bassist and has been a member of the Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra for the last 39 years. After attending New England Conservatory, she began to repair and make bows for violin, viola, cello and bass. In1990 she received a Fulbright Scholarship and an Annette Kade Fellowship to study The French School of bowmaking in Paris, France. Lynn has been a teacher at the Violin Institute of the University of New Hampshire, teaching rehair, repair and bowmaking for historical preservation. 

In 2004 she became the president of the International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative, IPCI-USA, which represents members in the US and Canada. It is her goal to get all musicians whose lives and performances are enhanced with the use of pernambuco bows to participate in the restoration of the species.  She says, “We must all plant trees to save the specie and by doing so also improve the lives of poor farming communities in Brazil, making them partners in conservation.  This we need to do for future generations of musicians; to empower them to inspire and entertain audiences with our centuries old musical traditions performed with traditional pernambuco bows.” She lives in Maine with her family and travels to Brazil regularly.