Background
She was born in Springfield, Massachusetts.
She was born in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Hutchins’s greatest innovation, still used by many violinmakers, was a technique known as free-plate tuning. When not attached to a violin, the top and back are called free plates. Her technique gives makers a precise way to refine these plates before a violin is assembled.
From 2002 to 2003, Hutchins’s octet was the subject of an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New New York
In 1963, Hutchins co-founded the Catgut Acoustical Society, which develops scientific insights into the construction of new and conventional instruments of the violin family. The Hutchins Consort, named after Hutchins, is a California ensemble featuring all eight instruments.
In 1974, Hutchins and Daniel West. Haines, using materials supplied by the Hercules Materials Company, Incorporated. (Allegany Ballistics Laboratory) of Cumberland, Maryland, developed a graphite-epoxy composite top that was determined to be a successful alternative to the traditional use of spruce for the violin belly.