Jean GRUNBERGER develops his own designs that highlight the combination of beauty, style and technique.

Site last updated: September 2025

OPEN LETTER TO MUSICIANS

The situation of Pernambuco wood is alarming and dramatic for your profession, which would be directly affected if the proposal to classify it in Appendix 1 by CITES were voted through at the COP in November 2025, a classification that would become irreversible.
Put simply, international regulations would make it too complicated, if not impossible, to conserve, buy, sell or repair a bow.
Extract from the OFB 2025 website
The French Biodiversity Office, a major player in CTES in France.
In France, the possession of and trade in species of wild fauna and flora are strictly regulated.
Failure to comply with these regulations can result in criminal penalties of up to 3 years' imprisonment and a €150,000 fine, in addition to seizure of the animal or object.

Yes, you read that right. Owning a bow bow that doesn't have the "right papers" would be illegal.
Knowing this, what can you do?
Take advantage of your concerts or masterclasses to talk about your bow, talk about its importance in your playing and your sound, talk about what it brings you.
Are you on social networks? Post it and share it as much as you can.
We need to make some noise, a lot of noise, if we hope to reverse the trend and the rejection of the classification proposal.
The general public always hears about instruments but never about the bow, which contributes to making the object itself invisible, as well as its history and its preponderant role in sound.
If the general public is concerned about the importance of the bow, and more specifically the bow made of Pernambuco wood, policy-makers are not Pernambuco, so too will political decision-makers.

November 2025 is already tomorrow!
After that? It will be too late.

Claudia Carmona
Jean Grunberger