1989
Founded Koch International Classics
Founded the label as General Manager, later serving as a senior figure in the classical recording industry.
About Michael
Michael Fine's musical life has never been confined to a single role. He is a recording producer, composer, clarinettist, conductor and artistic consultant whose career has encompassed the recording studio, orchestral life and artistic leadership. He won the Grammy Award for Classical Producer of the Year at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards, for recordings made in 1992.
As a producer, Michael has worked with orchestras and ensembles including the Vienna Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Rotterdam Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Recordings he has produced have been released by Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Warner, Sony, Virgin Classics, EMI, Telarc, Koch and Naxos.
His career within the classical recording industry has included founding Koch International Classics in 1989, where he served as General Manager and Vice President. He later joined Deutsche Grammophon in Hamburg as Vice President of Artists and Repertoire, becoming the first American to hold the label's Artistic Director post.
Beyond the recording industry, Michael has held senior artistic roles with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Gergiev Festival Rotterdam, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Seoul Philharmonic. From 2023 to 2025 he served as Founding Executive Consultant for the new Busan Concert Hall, advising on acoustics and helping shape its opening festival and inaugural season. Orchestral touring and continuing work as a clarinettist and conductor remain part of the same musical life.
Today, he continues to bring these different strands together, producing recordings, composing, performing and advising orchestras and arts organisations. Whether working in the studio, writing music or helping to shape an artistic programme, his work is grounded in close listening, musical curiosity and respect for the individual voice of each artist.
Preserving the ephemeral
Michael's work across recording, composition and artistic planning has been shaped by nearly five decades of listening closely to artists and audiences.
As I approach fifty years of working in music and recording production, I find myself reflecting on how profoundly the technology has changed. I began by cutting magnetic tape with a razor blade, took part in the early years of what then seemed the miracle of the compact disc, and now happily listen to and share music through digital streaming.
Yet through all these transformations, the essential nature of my work has remained the same: to preserve the ephemeral. A performance exists for a moment and then disappears. My task has always been to help artists recover from that fleeting moment the performance they imagined—sometimes even the idealised performance they carried within themselves—and to make it possible for that performance to reach an audience.
Milestones
1990s
Deutsche Grammophon — Vice President, Artists & Repertoire
First American to hold the post of Artistic Director at the hundred-year-old label.
1991
Grammy nomination — Classical Producer of the Year
Nominee at the 33rd Annual Grammy Awards (for 1990 recordings).
1993
Grammy Award — Classical Producer of the Year
Winner at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards (for 1992 recordings).
2006
Grammy nomination — Classical Producer of the Year
Nominee at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards (for 2005 recordings).
2000s
Rotterdam Philharmonic & Gergiev Festival Rotterdam
Artistic Manager, contributing to artistic planning and programming.
2000s
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Interim Artistic Director.
2000s
Seoul Philharmonic
Artistic Advisor.
2013
Composing career begins
Works including concertos, string quartets and chamber music, published by Le Chant du Monde and Donemus.
2023-2025
Founding Executive Consultant, Busan Concert Hall
Advised on the new hall's acoustics and helped shape its opening festival and inaugural season.
Ongoing
Clarinet performance
Continues to perform, including engagements at Festival Mozaic (California) and Tongyeong Music Festival (South Korea).
In Memory of Tamra "Tammy" Saylor Fine
Co-Founder of Fine Sound Productions
Tammy was my wife and the co-founder of Fine Sound Productions. We established the company together in 1993, and its development owed immeasurably to her musicianship, experience and organisational gifts.
I may have been the person in the headphones, but Tammy oversaw every other aspect of the business. She handled contracts, logistics and administration, keeping track of the thousands of details that allowed each recording project to proceed smoothly and without distraction. She did far more than organise the work: she created the conditions in which the music could happen.
Tammy brought to Fine Sound Productions a remarkable musical life of her own. As a performer, she appeared on recordings playing an unusually wide range of instruments: organ on the first recording of Miklós Rózsa's complete score for El Cid; theremin in Rózsa's The Lost Weekend; honky-tonk piano on an album of music by Victor Young; and orchestral piano on recordings made in Korea and New Zealand. She also performed as a violist with a professional orchestra.
Before Fine Sound Productions, Tammy taught choral and orchestral music in public schools. She was a founder of the San Diego Chamber Orchestra and managed the ensemble for its first eight years, during which four concert series were established and six CDs released. She also served as a group chairman on the Policy Committee of the American Symphony Orchestra League and led seminars at its national conferences.
That rare combination of musicianship, education and organisational experience gave Tammy an understanding of every aspect of a recording project. Fine Sound Productions was built upon the partnership we shared, and her contribution remains an important part of its history. I remember her with love, admiration and enduring gratitude.